Biodiversity Professionals http://biodiversityprofessionals.org biodiversity, conservation, environment, nature, wildlife, sustainability Fri, 25 Jan 2019 19:09:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.10 Video infographic shows temperature anomalies increasing over time http://biodiversityprofessionals.org/video-infographic-shows-temperature-anomalies-increasing-over-time/ http://biodiversityprofessionals.org/video-infographic-shows-temperature-anomalies-increasing-over-time/#respond Thu, 03 Aug 2017 16:10:24 +0000 http://www.biodiversityprofessionals.org/?p=1126 Most people reading this won’t have much doubt about the reality of global warming. Yes, there is debate about the extent of the human component. But most scientists agree that humans are significantly increasing CO2 levels. The science certainly points to this being a major cause of global temperature increase. Why is a video infographic […]

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]]> Picture of buildings with green and blue sky on left, hot cracked soil on right

A stark future awaits if we fail to act on climate change. (Credit: Wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Most people reading this won’t have much doubt about the reality of global warming. Yes, there is debate about the extent of the human component. But most scientists agree that humans are significantly increasing CO2 levels. The science certainly points to this being a major cause of global temperature increase.

Why is a video infographic helpful?

It can be hard to visualize global temperature changes. For example, a simple line graph shows a single number changing over time. It doesn’t show the complex data comprising changes in the range of temperatures across the planet over time.

Who can use this video infographic of global warming?

Scientists, educators, teachers and students can benefit from a better way to communicate global temperature change. This video infographic accomplishes that. It shows temperature anomalies arranged by country from 1900 to 2016. The visualization based on GISTEMP data, maintained by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The video is available for download free-of-charge on Flickr (see below for download link).

How can I use this video infographic?

The video infographic is ideal to illustrate the increasing urgency of climate change. You can clearly see that over time, temperature anomaly frequency is increasing. No special data interpretation skills are needed. Since it is available as a download, it can be used offline. Therefore, presenters could include this in a digital slide presentation, for example. An educator could show the video to students and use it as a way to engage students in a discussion about global warming. It’s also a good opportunity to talk to students about the importance of data visualization. Edward Tufte’s book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, is an excellent primer on this topic.

A picture is worth a thousand words, it is said. Well, good data visualization can convey complex ideas more readily than words. With that in mind, I encourage you to make use of this resource and share widely with colleagues and fellow Biodiversity Professionals.

CREDIT AND DOWNLOAD LINK
Antti Lipponen: Temperature anomalies arranged by country 1900 – 2016.
download icon DOWNLOAD (13.1 MB MP4 file)

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