Alt Text for All Images and Charts

Should You Opt In or Opt Out?

First image:

Cartoon of a mid-career woman, with eyeglasses and a suit, sitting at an office desk in a high-back chair with a man sitting across from her, laptop, notepad, cellphone and coffee cup to her front and side. In her hands is a sheaf of paper, likely a manuscript or lengthy article, and she says to the man: "I know you wrote this as a bleak vision of a dystopian future, but today we can sell it as a fond remembrance of the good old days."

The Wizard, the Prophet, and the Ostrich

First image:

Large cartoon of an ostrich, plumes of feathers sticking up off its backside, large feet and toes visible, with its head in a hole in the ground.

The Four Horsemen of the Carbon Apocalypse

First image:

Black and white sketch of the famous Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (figures in Christian religion that are symbolic warnings of the death and destruction that will occur at the end of days) in the style of Greek and Roman depictions of gods and goddesses and shows them armed with sword, scythe, bow, and scale, violently charging toward Earth at the end of the world.

Game Theory

First image:

Cartoon with a single stick figure alone on the page, line pointing from head to words above "Yes, from the evidence it looks pretty likely to me that we're causing global warming on a horrific scale. But with Science you don't need to argue. It doesn't matter who wins the debate - it's about reality. By just waiting a little longer, we'll get to see who was right. It feels unethical, but I find myself wanting to keep quiet about the science just to know for sure. As terrible as it sounds, the state of the world isn't really my responsibility. I'm just thrilled to get to watch. If the scientists are right --- and if we keep people from understanding just a little longer --- we'll enjoy quite a ride. And pragmatically, on the outside chance that they're all wrong, I get saved the embarrassment of having spoken up."

Understanding Carbon Lock-in

First image:

Ed. Note: Graph showing that CO2 parts-per-million and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) have increased substantially together since the industry index's inception just before 1900. Both reached their highest points in history in recent years. CO2 measurements were at 294ppm in 1900, and the DJIA was at 48.6. After steady rises over 100+ years, CO2 was at 412.5ppm and the DJIA was at 28,600 in 2019.

Detail: Graph actually has no vertical (Y) axis, but the bottom or X axis ranges from the years 1799-1900-2020, with 1900 and the DJIA number for that year shown as 48.6, which is the starting point for a line that begins to rise approximately 40 years later, takes some jagged rises and dips until around 1980 or so then rises dramatically, with some market index plunges shown into the early 2000's, then a steep rise to 28.6 thousand, almost straight up with only a few minor dips, in 2019. Above this line is a comparative line showing CO2 parts per million, starting in 1799 at 282.8, then staying mostly flat with little change until 1900, where it has risen to 294.2ppm, and then around 1960 beginning a steady rise upward to 2019 where it rose to 412.5ppm.

Second image:

Three-panel cartoon depicts two stick figures, one on left with no hat and carrying a book, the other with a hat and not carrying anything. First panel: Figure with book says to the other: "I'm trying to fix a problem with the world. Can you help?" Second panel: Figure with hat says "It's obvious you don't actually care. If you did, you'd be trying to fix this Bigger Problem instead." Final panel of cartoon: Figure with book saying: "OK, want to help fix the Bigger Problem?" Second figure to the right (with hat) says "No, for another reason I'll think of later."

Change Is Here

First image:

Large-scale, full-page illustration of the sky superimposed with a chart. The sky is filled with thunder clouds or smoke, which grow in size in conjunction with the Y-axis of the line chart. There are 4 separate data lines on the chart - illustrating the increases over time, from Earth’s creation to present day - between rising carbon dioxide concentration, ownership of vehicles in the U.S., annual carbon dioxide emissions from coal, and cumulative plastics production. All of these emission sources have increased dramatically in modern times, especially over the most recent 120 years.

What Is Carbon?

First image:

Graphic shows one large square, divided into 545 small gray squares, representing the gigatons of carbon contained within various types of life on earth. There are 450 gigatons, depicted as 450 gray squares, of carbon contained in all plant life. In contrast, the graphic depicts bacteria with 70 squares, Fungi with 12 squares, Archaea with 7 squares, Protists with 4 squares, and animals, including humans, with only 2 squares.

Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector

First image:

Horizontal Bar chart showing the human sources of greenhouse gas emissions, broken into four major categories. Based on records of emissions from 2016, humans were responsible for 49.4 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Summary: "Energy" production and usage, broken into several sub-sectors, contributes the greatest share (73%) of global greenhouse gases at 36.1 gigatons. The next-largest component is much smaller, with "Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use" at 9.08 gigatons. "Industry" contributes 2.58 gigatons and "Waste" at a bit more than 3% (1.57 gigatons) of the total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions during that year.

More detail: Starting with the TOP or FIRST "Energy" graph, this category as a whole is responsible for 36.1 gigatons of the 49.4 gigatons in total CO2 emissions from all human activity. It is subdivided into Road Transport as the longest bar on the chart at 5.87 gigatons of CO2, then Residential Buildings at 5.38, Other Industry, 5.23, Unallocated Fuel Combustion, 3.85, Iron and Steel, 3.55, Commercial Buildings, 3.26, Fugitive emissions from energy production, 2.86, Chemical and Petrochemical, 1.77. Aviation, just under 1 gigaton at 0.93, is the next bar down on this first chart, then Energy in Agriculture and Fishing, 0.83, Shipping, same, then 6 other areas all under 0.34 gigatons each, ranging downward from Non Ferrous Metals to Paper & Pulp, Machinery, Rail, Pipeline and the last bar in the "Energy" category, Food & Tobacco, responsible for 0.04 gigatons of CO2 emissions. The SECOND Graph down is "Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use" carbon dioxide emissions. Of this category's 9.08 total gigatons, Livestock & Manure is the largest bar/portion at 2.86 gigatons. Next in order are Agricultural soils, 2.02, Crop Burning, 1.72, Deforestation, 1.08, Cropland, 0.69, Rice Cultivation, 0.64, and finally Grassland, at 0.04 gigatons of carbon emissions. The BOTTOM TWO charts of 4 on the page show "Industry" sources of carbon totaling 2.56 gigatons, with only two components, Cement at 1.48 and Chemicals, 1.08 gigatons of carbon emissions. The final chart at BOTTOM shows the "Waste" category, with two bars only also: Landfills responsible for 0.93 and Wastewater for 0.64 gigatons of carbon emissions.

Energy Production and Carbon

First image:

Ed. Note: The Energy Production and Carbon article references 5 separate, yet related graphs and charts below it. All highlight the links between energy production and carbon emissions, especially their relationship to dramatically increased human energy consumption since 1950.

Bar chart shows global primary energy consumption by source, as of 2019, with types of power sources shown in order of relative size, and includes the percentage of the total energy consumption for each source. Oil is the largest source at 33.1%, Coal and Gas follow it at 27% and 24.3%, respectively, of consumption by source. Other sources include Hydropower at 6.4%, Nuclear energy at 4.3%, Wind, 2.2%, Solar, 1.1%, Biofuels, 0.7% and all Other Renewables comprising less than 1% of global primary energy consumption sources.

Second image:

Pie chart summarizes the prior exhibit by showing global energy consumption as being 84% Fossil fuel-related and 16% from Non-fossil fuels.

Third image:

Line graph shows renewable energy vs. fossil fuels, with the line representing fossil fuels rising rapidly along the X axis (years from 1950-2019) to 148,000 TeraWatt hours of power produced in 2019, while the line representing renewables rises much more slowly to 25,000 TeraWatthours in 2019.

Fourth image:

Line chart shows "Total emissions, 1950-2019" with emissions from all energy sources rising from 5.9 gigatons more than six-fold to 36.7 gigatons during this timeframe.

Fifth image:

Line chart shows the top emission sources in gigatons from 1970 through 2020. Oil, at 6.8 gigatons, is the top source, and line, in 1970, with coal following at 5.7 gigatons, and gas at 1.8 gigatons. The chart shows that in 2020, coal has surpassed oil as the top energy emission source at 14 gigatons, oil at 11.1 gigatons and gas at 7.4 gigatons.

Construction’s Carbon Debt

First image:

Bar chart titled "Manufacturing and construction emissions'', shows that building use of electricity and heat is nearly double the next-highest emissions source, material manufacturing, at 6,855 megatons of CO2 vs. 3,430 MtCO2, respectively. Other sources on this chart are Building use of natural gas, oil and coal which, combined, total less than one-third of the top two sources. The chart shows that building construction is the smallest source of emissions.

Second image:

Pie chart shows "Energy-related emissions" with two segments: "Manufacturing & construction" (all of the emission sources shown in the “Manufacturing and construction emissions” bar chart) at 38% of all energy-related emissions, and "All other sources", 62%

Third image:

Line chart titled “Buildings climate tracker,” measuring the decarbonization index trend for buildings and construction. The X axis covers 2015 to 2019 in one-year increments. The line representing the decarbonization goals to reach zero carbon building stock by 2050 bisects the chart. The second line starts by tracking the goal but then falls annually, showing the building sector’s actual progress. The index finds that annual decarbonisation progress is slowing down and has, in fact, almost halved from 2016 to 2019. While the number of building sector CO2 emissions reduction actions are growing, the rate of annual improvement is decreasing. To get the buildings sector on track to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050, all actors across the buildings value chain need to contribute to the effort to reverse this trend and increase decarbonization actions and their impact by a factor of 5.

Fourth image:

Single panel cartoon showing a middle-aged couple doing gardening/yard maintenance in their front yard, one with the handle of a rake in his gloved hand. This man is pointing at their next-door neighbor, rake on the ground at her feet, with her gloved hands and arms stretched around a corner of the house next door in a loving embrace, with hearts emanating from her closed eyes and a smile on her face. The man in his yard gestures toward the happy neighbor behind him and says to the woman next to him - as she's placing their own yard's clippings into a recycling bag - "She's been acting like that ever since she made her home energy efficient."

Agriculture and Meat Production’s Role in Climate Change

First image:

Illustration of a cheeseburger, with condiments and bun, with the caption "A single cheeseburger has the same climate impact as driving a typical car more than 10 miles/20 km."

Why Are the Greenhouse Emissions Numbers So Confusing?

First image:

Two pie charts found online and used in several carbon emissions related articles, intended to demonstrate carbon dioxide sources by sector and sub-sector. As the caption indicates, one is often considered to be difficult to understand, and one is often considered to oversimplify the data.The “complex” pie chart shows the sources of carbon emissions, with “energy” comprising 73% of the pie. Another circle is drawn outside of the pie and shows the breakdown of various subtypes of the various sources in the base pie, and there are two more circles outside of that attempting to break down the information even further. The simpler pie chart categorizes carbon dioxide emissions in a way so that “electricity” is 25% of the pie and does not show the overlap that exists between activities in real life.

Second image:

A complicated infographic that attempts to illustrate the multitude of ways a typical company emits greenhouse gases, both directly and indirectly. The chart has three different layers. From bottom to top, the first layer divides activities a typical company undertakes in reporting Upstream and Downstream carbon emitting activities. The second layer of this illustration attempts to group activities under Upstream/Downstream activities, except some activities cross-over between more than one, with the exact amount undefined. It shows a series of arrows, corresponding to "Scopes" 1-3 indicated by "U-shaped" arrows displayed across the page. These scopes are further divided into indirect and direct functions, which are themselves comprised of individual activity areas, i.e., "Purchased Goods and Services", "Business Travel", "Company Vehicles" and "Transportation and Distribution" are four of eighteen areas shown where a typical company generates emissions. Then, the third layer, at the top of the graphic, shows seven greenhouse gas elements, represented by images of clouds and scientific labels, from CO2 on the far left to HFCs in the middle and NF3 (Nitrogen trifluoride - an extremely strong and long-lived greenhouse gas used in the production of flat-panel displays, photovoltaics, LEDs and other microelectronics) on the far right.

The Plastic Lifecycle

First image:

Line chart shows the expansion of global plastics production from 1950-2015. From around 2 million tons near the beginning of this period and then extending upward at a consistent, steep angle of approximately 45 degrees until 2015, the chart line shows total global plastics production has increased 1900%, reaching 381 million tons across the sixty-five years measured.

Balance in the Earth’s Carbon Cycle

First image:

Two illustrations accompanying this Carbon Almanac article. The first is a sketch of a large wooden barrel, with a huge amount of liquid entering it and splashing over its top. It's labeled "carbon-cycle imbalance" and flowing into the top of the barrel are "emissions", labeled as 700 gigatons of carbon released into the atmosphere. At the bottom of the barrel there is a very small spigot, which is labeled and draining out "Net removals" representative of carbon removed from the atmosphere. More detail comes from a line chart positioned directly below the barrel illustration, showing the "difference between emissions and sinks (carbon imbalance) over 7 decades." This chart displays the years from 1950-2020 along its bottom, X axis. Running on a fairly steep curve upward during nearly every portion of this annual progression, the top line on the chart represents "Carbon Emissions", which started in 1950 at 3.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year and reached more than 3 times that amount, or 10.4 gigatons/year, in 2020. The bottom line of the graph represents amounts removed from the atmosphere by "Carbon Sinks", beginning with 2.7 gigatons in 1950, and it has risen and fallen several times per decade from then until 2020, when carbon sinks removed 6.1 gigatons per year. Text between the two lines reads: "excessive carbon in the atmosphere is pushing us out of balance". Though more carbon is being removed now than 70 years ago, carbon emissions have increased at a higher rate. In fact, the gap between the two in 2020 is much larger on an actual and percentage-difference basis than it was in 1950.

Carbon Dioxide on Earth over Time

First image:

Line graph shows Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere along its X/bottom axis from 800,000 years ago until 2019. The line on this simple chart shows substantial rises and falls over the millennia, with a low point shown of 171.6 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 around 650 thousand years ago, during a glacial ice age, and then a high point in the ancient period occurring approximately 350 thousand years ago, when carbon dioxide concentrations were at 300 ppm. As the line moves through the last 200 years, it trends up very sharply and consistently to a 2019 average CO2 concentration of 409.8 ppm in 2019, at least 30% higher than ever measured previously.

Food Loss and Waste

First image:

Pie chart titled "Contribution to greenhouse gas emissions." 'Food waste and loss' represent the smallest portion of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, at 6% of the total. The next-largest component is emissions from 'Food eaten', at 20%, and the largest slice of the "pie" , at 74%, is human-caused emissions categorized as 'All other sources'.

The Five Scenarios Outlined by the IPCC

First image:

Line chart with 5 lines, the estimates of carbon dioxide emissions that would follow each of five future emissions scenarios - or Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) - projected for the world by the IPCC, from 2050 forward, based on actions that (might be) taken today - or not - by people and governments of the world. It shows the baseline in 2015 for each scenario at just over 39 gigatons of CO2 emissions, with the first scenario (or SSP) "very low emissions" trajectory trending from there to 2100 on a sharp downward path, with a projection reaching 1.9 gigatons, or near-net zero carbon emissions, or even lower, to a potential removal of 13.9 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere. The second and third scenarios show similar results, but not quite as positive projected impacts, at 2.6 gigatons to a potential of -8.6 gigatons (below net-zero) and 4.5 to 9.7 gigatons, respectively. The fourth and fifth SSP lines display much higher endpoints on the chart, with the second-highest and highest carbon emissions projections of any of the five scenarios, at 7.0 to 82.7 gigatons and 8.5 to 126.3 gigatons for the very worst projected IPCC SSP carbon emissions outcomes.

Second image:

Table showing each SSP scenario number and its projections for change in average world temperature with a description of actions that might contribute to achievement of each scenario. Below that table are two separated, large illustrations of both "Low" and "High" emissions IPCC scenarios. In the left panel of this illustration, the Low emissions scenario is depicted with a polar bear standing on arctic sea ice, with a rain cloud and a typical rain pattern coming from it at top and verbiage "2.4% increase in global average precipitation over land." The other key indicators accompanying low emissions are also shown: a thermometer with the words "1.4°C increase in global surface temperature", and an arrow pointing upwards and labeled "0.38 meters rise in global mean sea level”. Below the arctic ice ledge where the bear is depicted at sea level are the words "2.4 10⁶ Km² of September minimum Arctic sea ice". The right panel depicts the High emissions scenario. It shows a cloud raining heavily over a barren and much thinner ice ledge atop the Arctic sea. Verbiage above the cloud reads "3.5x worse" in bold type, then in normal type "8.3% increase in global average annual precipitation over land." Other indicators in this illustration are a thermometer showing a higher temperature than in the first, Low emissions illustration. Next to it it says, in bold type "3.1x worse" and then "4.4°C increase in global surface air temperature." Below, an arrow points upward next to, in bold, words reading "2x worse", then "0.77 meter rise in global mean sea level." Finally, below sea level, much closer to the surface to illustrate more significant melting, is printed in bold "8x worse" and then "0.3 10⁶ Km² of September minimum Arctic sea ice."

The Climate Cost of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers

First image:

Side-by-side illustration depicts "The Climate Cost of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers" by showing a handheld gas leaf blower with the words “1 hour of leaf blower use” on the left, an equal sign in the middle, and a drawing of a car on the right and the words "1770.278 kilometers driven in a Toyota Camry." to show that each of these disparate activities are roughly equal in carbon emissions impact. This is quite surprising because at 60 mph/37.2823 kph, this means the car would be driven for almost 47.5 hours to generate the same carbon emissions as the gas-powered leaf blower in one hour!

The History of Systematic Measurement of CO2

First image:

Line chart represents "CO2 parts per million (ppm), 1958-present" and is based on measurements taken at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory. Beginning in 1958 at 214 ppm of measured CO2, the single trend line on the chart rises at a fairly sharp angle until 2021, when the concentration of carbon dioxide reached 416 ppm according to the Mauna Loa instruments. One other note on the chart along its bottom shows the "Baseline average over the prior 800 thousand years" as being 275 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Understanding the Five Scenarios

First image:

Line chart illustrates the following statement: "A sea-level rise of nearly one meter could impact the lives of nearly a billion people living in coastal regions, islands, and areas currently prone to flooding." Two scenarios are depicted, each with higher/lower outcome estimates from the years 2020 through 2100 shown on the X/bottom axis. One scenario incorporating sea-level rise estimates for Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) Scenario #1 shows that the projected increase in temperature of 2.6°C (above pre-industrial temperatures) for this scenario by 2030 and continuing at this temperature level or lower through 2100 will result in a sea-level rise of 59.8 cm. There are dotted lines to show the results if estimates come in at the higher or lower ranges of this projection. The same approach is taken to display the estimates for SSP Scenario #3, which at its midpoint would include a temperature increase by 2100 of 3.6°C above pre-industrial levels and additional carbon emissions of 7 gigatons per year vs. 2015 levels. These two factors combined are projected to raise sea levels by 83.8 cm by 2100.

Heat and Health

First image:

Table shows the "Health impacts of exposure to extreme heat", separating these into "Indirect" and "Direct" Impacts on the left and the right of the table. Indirect Impacts include Accidents (indicated by a drawing of a drop of blood falling from a pricked finger) such as Drowning, Work-related accidents, and Injuries and poisonings. The next Indirect impact is Transmission of Food and waterborne diseases and Marine algae blooms (including drawing of a pig), the last two Indirect impact types are Disruption of Infrastructure (Power, Water, Transport, and Productivity - all indicated by a drawing of an electric power transmission tower) and Health services including More ambulance call-outs and slower response times, Increased number of hospital admissions, and Impact on storage medicines. A drawing of an ambulance illustrates this final Indirect Impact type. On the right side of the two-part table, Direct Impacts are shown as Heat Illness - indicated with a drawing of a thermometer and an upward moving arrow and including Dehydration, Heat cramps, and Heat stroke, then Hospitalization (hospital drawing with a cross in center) including Stroke, Respiratory disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Renal disease, and Mental health conditions. The final Direct Impact of human exposure to extreme heat listed in this table is Accelerated Death, illustrated by a skull drawing. This category includes Respiratory and cardio-vascular disease, and Other chronic diseases (mental health conditions, renal disease.)

What is Biodiversity?

First image:

Photograph of a white and black Lemur with a distinctive fur 'ruff' around its head and neck, wide eyes and open mouth, appears to be crying out.

Desertification

First image:

Drawing of the upper half of an earthworm, drawn in black and white across the bottom third of the two page spread.

Food Insecurity

First image:

Graphic shows a large "+1°C" and ten sheaves of grain, with one grayed out and wilted to express the impact of the mean temperature rise on crop production. Caption reads “1 degree Celsius rise in mean temperature is correlated to a 10 percent drop in crop yields.”

Human Migration Away From Inhospitable Land

First image:

Bar chart titled "Weather-related human displacement in 2020" shows six principal causes of such movements: 30 million people were displaced in 2020 by climate related events. Storms and Floods represent the largest segments, affecting 14.6 million and 14 million respectively. A very distant third on the list is Wildfires at 1.2 million annually, and Landslides (102 thousand), Extreme temperatures (46 thousand) and Droughts (32 thousand) are the last three bars on the chart.

Second image:

Bar chart ranks the "Five countries with the most new displacements by disasters in 2019". Five countries are shown with the top being India with 5 million people displaced by disasters, then Philippines and Bangladesh (both 4.1 million), China (4 million) and United States (0.9 million).

Land and Soil Degradation

First image:

Illustration of lots of bugs in various shapes and sizes surrounding the article, "Agricultural Pests and Diseases."

Job Transition from Fossil Fuels

First image:

Satellite photo-based illustration of the United States, showing the individual counties in each of the 50 states, each shaded to represent the percentage of residents employed by the fossil fuel industry. Darker shades of gray have a higher percentage of residents working in the fossil fuel industry, and the map shows this in known petroleum-producing states like Texas, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Oklahoma, plus Alaska, Colorado, North Dakota, and "lighter" shaded states with some fossil fuel employment - Montana, Utah and California.

Second image:

Graphic illustrates total jobs in several energy-producing industries by using multiples of individual human solid stick figures in groups of 25, stacked on top of each other by category. Each represents 50,000 jobs among the World Total of 11 million jobs in this general sector. The largest category is Solar Energy, with 4.45 million, or more than a third of the worldwide energy industry employment total. Continuing down the list are Bioenergy (biomass, biofuels, biogas) at 3.2 million, Hydropower and Wind Power (both 2.05 million), and Geothermal (100 thousand).

The Impact of Global Tourism

First image:

Line graph depicts "Transport-related CO2 emissions" (in millions of tons). X axis ranges from 2016-2030. During this time, projections for transport-related tourism emissions (using present usage figures and patterns) are highest for Domestic Car travel, starting from 550 million tons in 2016 and increasing to 627 million tons by 2030. Just below this total are emissions from International Air transportation, projected to increase substantially from 397 million in 2016 to 616 million by 2030. Domestic Air travel, the third line on this chart, was responsible for 282 million tons in 2016 and is expected to reach 376 million tons by the 2030 end date for this study. One related infographic sits next to this chart. It's a drawing of a suitcase with an extended handle, bearing "stickers" on its side showing all the activities which comprise global tourism, ranked by percentage of the total emissions for the industry. 49% Transport, 12% Goods, 10% Food and Beverage, and 29% in "Other" tourism-related categories.

Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change

First image:

Illustration of repeating rows of 6 identical tiger drawings, each in itself representing 60 wild tigers still in existence. The 10 rows on this chart added together signify the 3200-3600 wild adult tigers remaining in the world.

Second image:

Pie chart, with two segments - showing climate change impacts on biodiversity, in this case the biodiversity loss that results from Converting Land for Agriculture (70%) and All Other Reasons (30%)

Hot Droughts

First image:

Vertical bar chart depicts the percentage above or below normal of "Summertime highs in the American Southwest", with shaded bars representing below normal and dark bars for above normal temperatures. This chart begins in 1910 and ends in 2021. It shows that from 1910 through the end of the century, Summertime high temperatures in this region frequently dropped as much as 50% or more below average and only occasionally edged close to 50% above average. After 2000, it became common, as noted by the majority of dark bars on this portion of the chart, for temperatures to exceed averages by 30-50% and in about 5 years leading up to and including 2021, to reach 70% or more above normal high temperatures for the summer in the Southwest.

Impact on Forests

First image:

Graphic resembling a tree with a thick canopy of leaves and branches with the caption "A single tree hosts as many as 2.3 million organisms."

Second image:

20 trees are grouped to represent forests, with the caption "...and the forests sustain nearly 25 percent of the global population (1.6 billion people)."

Climate Change in Front of Your Eyes

First image:

Illustration of a fallen tree lying on its side, with its roots extended out among a grove of similar healthy trees that are still growing upright. The drawing is surrounded by various results listed as effects of climate change around a typical home. Fallen trees is one of many of these.

Second image:

Illustration of a chairlift over a ski slope, with very little snow coverage and sparse trees dotting the landscape under the chairs and towers up the hillside.

Third image:

Illustration of a minivan and other cars partially submerged under water on a flooded street next to a parking lot.

Loss of Wetlands and Marshes

First image:

"Loss of Wetlands and Marshes" shares a graphic with the article "Desertification", which is the upper half of an earthworm, symbolic of healthy soil balance, drawn in black and white across the bottom third of the two page spread featuring these articles.

Impact of Commercial Space Travel

First image:

Graphic illustrates the "Impact of Commercial Space Travel." One person in a space suit with a bag stands on the left panel and 50 passengers with luggage are shown on the right panel. The caption reads “CO2 emissions for each of the passengers on a commercial space flight would be between 50 and 100 times more than the one to three tons of emissions that are generated per passenger on a long-haul airplane flight.”

Impact to Peatlands

First image:

Vertical bar chart titled "Global Distribution of Peatland" notes the four countries which collectively hold 81.9% of all peatland on Earth. Russia is the first and largest with 1.4 million square kilometers of peatland within its borders, followed by Canada with 1.1 million square kilometers, then Indonesia, 266.5 thousand km², USA, 223.8 thousand km², and all other countries, containing 664.2 thousand square kilometers of peatland.

How Much Land Would It Take to Power the US through Solar?

First image:

In addition to a table showing the amount of land required for generating electricity, categorized by source, there is also a graphical representation of the 48 continental United States as part of the article "How Much Land Would It Take to Power the US through Solar?" This graphic notes that of a total of 9.834 million square kilometers of land in the continental US, an area of solar panels smaller than the size of the Mojave Desert, or 124,000 square kilometers (8 million acres) would be needed - and only for five hours - to generate enough electricity to power the United States for an entire day.

Greenwashing & Recycling Theatre

First image:

Line chart showing "Percentage of waste recycled by material type" with the X/bottom axis showing years ranging from 1960-2018. Three lines begin at 1960 along various slopes showing the percentage of specific materials that are successfully recycled. The top achiever on this list is paper and cardboard, which began at 17% in 1960 and in 2018 reached the 68% recycled mark. Glass is the next highest starting at only 2% in 1960 and rising to 25% recycled in 2018. The final line on the chart - representing plastic - shows how there was zero recycling of this material in 1960, and just 9% recycling of plastic waste by 2018.

Second image:

Drawing of a dump truck dumping material into a hole, with a two-part description: "60 billion coffee pods were produced in 2018, and of the 39,000 pods made every minute...29,000 end up in landfill." The last portion of the quote is in larger bold print across the background of the pods dumped into the hole.

Third image:

Bar chart, titled "Workforce size across various industries (in millions)" It has 5 bars shaded in gray from highest number of employees to lowest. One is emphasized in solid black fill, showing the Recycling and Reuse industry, which is fourth of five industries listed. The others in order are Computer and Electronic Manufacturing - 1.5 million workers, Food Manufacturing - 1.42 million, Auto and Trucking Manufacturing - 1.4 million, Recycling and Reuse, 1.25 million and at the bottom, Auto and Trucking Manufacturing with 1.2 million workers. A caption under the graph reads "The recycling industry employs more than one million people in the U.S.”

Solar Energy

First image:

Image titled "Solar energy by latitude, mid-March", and showing cities arrayed as they would be on latitudinal lines on about half the globe, except in this case they are simply black lines and city names across white space to the appropriate end of the "globe"' diameter, ending with the solar energy figure measured at the latitude and city, displayed in kilowatts absorbed per square meter, mid-day. The cities and latitudes down the "globe" start at the top with Helsinki, Finland at 60 degrees North and solar energy absorbed of 14.2 kilowatts per square meter. Continuing down the globe, next is Paris, France (48° N), 15.5 kilowatts/sq meter; San Francisco, USA (37° N), 16.4 Kw/sq meter; Miami, USA (25° N), 17.2 Kw/sq meter; Mumbai, India (18° N), 17.4 Kw/sq meter; Bangkok, Thailand (13° N), 17.5 Kw/sq meter; Accra, Ghana (4° N), 17.6 Kw/sq meter; Quito, Ecuador (0°), 17.7° Kw/sq meter; Lima, Peru (12° S), 17.6 Kw/sq meter; Pretoria, South Africa (25° S), 17.2 Kw/sq meter; Buenos Aires, Argentina (34° S), 16.8 Kw/sq meter; Wellington, New Zealand (41° S), 16.1 Kw/sq meter; Puerta Tora, Chile (55° S), 15.0 Kilowatts absorbed per square meter at mid-day.

Second image:

Bizarro cartoon called "Carbon Neutral Tattoo." In a single panel, two people are standing, the one on the left with long hair in a ponytail and an upside-down bird drawn on their shirt, left hand held up to mouth, and with a doubtful look on their face. The other character, an artist at Carbon Neutral Tattoo, is bald, wears a black shirt and sports prominent body art, piercings, and a Van Dyke beard. In his hand he holds a stencil with cut-out letters "MOM" arrayed in a ribbon shape across an image of a heart in the background. The owner says to the customer: "Punch out this stencil, and wear it while sunbathing."

Wind Energy

First image:

Chart uses progressively larger images of wind turbines to represent their "Sizes and their energy output". The smallest wind turbine size and output, typical in 1981, was 15 meters tall, and could generate 55 kiloWatts of power. Continuing across the chart from left to right, 1991, 35 meters in height, 450 kW of power, 1995, 60m and 1.3 megawatts, 1999, 66m and 2 MW, 2004, 114m and 4.5MW, 2007, 126m and 6MW. The last, and largest of the wind turbines shown is from 2016, is 187 meters tall, and generates 8 megawatts of power. Just to the right of the last and tallest wind turbine is a representative sketch of New York's Statue of Liberty, which, at 92 meters high, is dwarfed by the latest standard-size wind turbine towers.

Second image:

Chart titled "Energy Distribution" shows predominant types of materials that have been used to produce energy between 1810 and 2019, which is the distance in years across the bottom of the chart. Wood was by far the largest energy producer from 1810 until the end of the 19th century, and then began to decline. Coal (shaded in black) surged into use beginning in the mid-1800s and gained prominence over Wood at the beginning of the 20th century, beginning to decline around the 1980s, then dropping substantially and leveling off thereafter at roughly 35-40% of its peak. Oil is the next source profiled (in a shade of very dark gray) and it emerges on the scene in the late 1800's and within a few decades equals Coal's output as a fuel and has remained the largest source thereafter up to 2019. Natural gas emerged and grew steadily in usage from the early 1900's until it plateaued at approximately 20% of overall power output. Finally, Renewables are shown as a relatively recent source of energy, and a note to the right of the chart states that Renewables make up 15% of energy sources as of 2019. The other sources listed previously make up the other 85% of all energy produced.

Nuclear Energy by Fission

First image:

Graphic illustrates “Death rates from energy production” with 2,462 very small identical human-shaped figures lined up in rows to the shape of a square. That represents a rough approximation of the total percentage of deaths from accidents and air pollution per 100 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy production related to Coal. In contrast, there are 7 figures in a single row to represent the number of deaths caused by Nuclear energy production.

Hydroelectric Power

First image:

Horizontal Bar chart shows "The world's largest dams of 2019". It displays the top ten dams and their gigawatts (GW) of energy produced, starting with Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China at 22.50 GW. Next, in order down the graph, with correspondingly smaller 'bars' on the chart, include Itaipu Dam, Parana River, Brazil/Paraguay, 14 GW; Xilodu Dam, Jinsha River, China, 13.86 GW; Guri Dam, Caroni River, Venezuela, 10.24 GW; Tucuri Dam, Tocantinis River, Brazil, 8.37 GW; Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia River, US, 6.81 GW; Longtan Dam, Hongshui River, China, 6.43 GW; Xiannjiaba Dam, Jinsha River, China, 6.40 GW; Krasnoyarsk Dam, Yensei River, Russia, 6 GW; and the tenth-largest Robert-Bourassa Dam, in La Grande, Canada, generating 5.62 gigawatts of power.

Second image:

Bar chart shows the “newly installed capacity by region,” with East Asia and Pacific with 14,466 GW, followed by Europe with 3,032 GW, followed by South and Central America, Africa, North and South America, and finally South America with 476 GW of newly installed capacity.

Geothermal Energy

First image:

Table titled the "Advantages and Disadvantages of geothermal energy" shows column headers to be " + " and " - " signs. In the “ + “ or advantages column are the following: Renewable, Uninterrupted power generation, Small footprint, and Clean, while the “ - “ disadvantages column are these: High installation cost, Not all sites are suitable, Might trigger earthquakes, and Can cause toxic emissions.

Bar chart titled "Installed Geothermal Capacity, 2020", showing the top ten countries in the world in terms of geothermal capacity, measured in Megawatts of electricity. USA is the largest and topmost bar on this chart, at 3,714 MWe of geothermal energy produced, followed by Indonesia, at 2,133 MWe, The Philippines, 1,918 MWe, Turkey, 1,688 MWe, New Zealand, 1,005 MWe, Mexico, 963 MWe, Italy, 944 MWe, Kenya, 861 MWe, Iceland, 755 MWe and tenth on the list is Japan, with 603 megawatts of electricity generated from geothermal sources.

Generating Energy from Ocean Tides

First image:

Bar chart illustrates "Installed electric capacity worldwide in 2019" and breaks down the sources by Megawatts. First listed is Fossil fuels at 4,213 megawatts (MW), then Renewables at 2,497 MW. These are shaded black, while the remainder are gray, which emphasizes the dominance of these two types of electricity capacity. The remaining listed types are Hydroelectricity at 1,140 MW, then Wind, 622 MW, Solar, 584 MW, Nuclear, 369 MW, Hydroelectric pumped storage, 168 MW, Biomass and waste, 134 MW, Geothermal energy, 14 MW, and finally energy generated from Tide, Wave, and Fuel cell totaled 2 Megawatts in 2019.

Second image:

Illustration demonstrates how tidal power is harnessed to generate and distribute electric power. On the lower right, a turbine with blades sits on the seafloor with fish swimming above. Arrows point from the coastline down toward the seafloor, and then past the turbine, representing retreating tides flowing towards the blades of the tidal turbine, causing them to rotate and create electricity. The diagram shows arrows then emanating from the bottom of the turbine and running via cables to transfer the newly generated electricity to an electrical transmission tower with the note “The electricity is distributed to the city grid.”

Developing Plant-Based Alternatives

First image:

Line graph of actual CO2 concentration by year from 1741 to 2021 and forecasted concentrations up to 2051. In 1741, CO2 was measured at 277.9 parts per million (PPM). In 2021, CO2 concentrations have increased to 416.9 PPM. The forecasted concentrations for 2051 are 280 PPM.

Second image:

Bar chart showing the land used (in square meters) by different food types to produce 100g of protein. Lamb & Mutton (184.8), Beef (beef herd) (163.6), Cheese (39.8), Pig meat (10.7), Nuts (7.9), Poultry (7.1), Peas (3.4), Soybeans (tofu) (2.2).

Electric Vehicles

First image:

Table showing the states in the US with the highest rate of EV charging ports per 100,000 people. From highest to lowest is Vermont (125.8), Washington, D.C. (88.1), California (82), Hawaii (52.5), and Colorado (52.2).

Second image:

Table showing states in the US with the largest growth of EV charging ports per 100,000 people in the first quarter of 2021. From highest to lowest is Oklahoma (52.3%), North Dakota (16.7%), Michigan (10.8%), Pennsylvania (10.5%), and Massachusetts (9.7%).

Third image:

Line graph showing growth in use of electric cars in OECD Countries and non-OECD Countries. The x-axis starts in the year 2010, with OECD countries having 23.2 thousand electric cars and non-OECD countries having 3.2 thousand electric cars. The x-axis ends at the year 2050 with OECD countries projected to have 270.5 million electric cars and non-OECD countries projected to have 402.3 million electric cars.

Edible Insects

First image:

Large line drawings of beetles, a dragonfly, a moth and a grasshopper spread across the page.

Second image:

Bar chart titled "The bugs we're eating". Images of the bugs make up the bars of the chart. From highest to lowest, the bugs included in human diets as a percentage of total bug diets are: beetles (31%); caterpillars (18%); bees, wasps, & ants (14%); grasshoppers, locusts & crickets (13%); other groups (13%); cicadas, leafhoppers & planthoppers (10%).

Third image:

Graphic of a grasshopper sandwiched within a burger bun.

Fourth image:

Bar chart titled "1kg of food: Comparing crickets to cattle". There are four bar chart comparisons. The first metric is emissions produced in kilograms of CO2 equivalence. Cattle produce 2.850 compared to crickets at 0.001. The second metric is land use in square meters. Cattle use 200 compared to crickets at 15. The third metric is kilograms of feed required. Cattle require 10 compared to crickets at 1.7. The fourth metric is liters of water required. Cattle require 22,000 compared to crickets at less than 1. (Ed. note: It takes significantly fewer resources to produce a kg of food from crickets than from cattle.)

Restoring Soil Health

First image:

Infographic titled "How healthy soil can balance the water cycle." A slice view of earth's soil with rain falling from clouds at the top and the upper right hand of the slice showing partial erosion (approx. 25-30%) by unhealthy soil. A large arrow penetrates through the center of the slice from top to bottom. The layers are labeled from top to bottom: ORGANIC Organic Matter; SURFACE Organics mixed with mineral matter; SUBSOIL Mixture of silt, sand, or clay; SUBSTRATUM Parent rock; BEDROCK Unweathered parent material. The large arrow slicing down through the layers is labeled "Healthy soil" and says, "Animals and plants can breathe and move about easily. Water is absorbed and stored in air pockets in the soil. When these pockets are filled and the soil becomes saturated, extra water flows through to return to the bedrock aquifers." Along the runoff area at the top-right, is an area labeled "Unhealthy soil" which says "Water is not absorbed, and it runs across the surface, eroding the soil." At the SUBSOIL level, on the right side, it says "Animals and plants beneath the surface have limited movements and root growth, and are devoid of water to survive."

Storing Carbon Naturally

First image:

Infographic showing two double arrows, pointing up (carbon released) and down (carbon sequestered). The arrow on the left is labeled "For 100,000 years" and each end is of equal thickness, showing balance. The arrow on the right is labeled, "Currently." This arrow shows more carbon being released than stored, visualizing how the earth’s carbon storage cycle is out of balance.

Carbon-Neutral Fuels: Ammonia

First image:

Infographic comparing lithium battery with ammonia fuel cell. The lithium battery contains text saying, "Nongreen storage system" and "CO2 emitter produces less energy than ammonia options". The ammonia fuel cell has leaves growing from the top of the battery and says "sustainable fuel", "20 times the energy of lithium batteries", "3 times the energy of compressed hydrogen", and "70 percent more energy than liquid hydrogen."

Second image:

Bizarro cartoon showing a courtroom with the judge watching on as an attorney questions a witness in the witness stand. The 'witness' is the planet earth. The attorney says, "Is the species that attacked you in the courtroom now, and can you identify it?"

Carbon-Neutral Fuels: Hydrogen

First image:

Bizarro cartoon showing a news reporter talking into a microphone in the foreground with a large beached whale in the background. The whale is smothering a sea turtle and a dolphin is caught in a fishing net on the whale's back. Several people stand around the whale including tourists, scientists, and news crews. An SUV is partially obscured behind it. The reporter in the foreground says, "A quadruple environmental tragedy here today, Brian, as a whale, tangled in a tuna net full of dolphins, beached itself on top of an egg-laying sea turtle and was hit by a gas-guzzling SUV."

Second image:

Illustration of a car with a large water drop on the door and an atomic symbol for oxygen within the drop.

Third image:

Infographic showing that 1kg of pressurized hydrogen gas (shown as one pressurized canister) provides equivalent power to 2.8kg of gasoline (shown as 3 kg jugs).

The 20 Largest Fossil Fuel Producers

First image:

Horizontal Bar chart titled "The 20 largest fossil fuel producers: Cumulative gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from 1965 to 2017." From top to bottom the list is: Saudi Aramco (59.3), Chevron (43.4), Gazprom (43.2), ExxonMobil (41.9), National Iranian Oil Co. (35.7), BP (34.0), Royal Dutch Shell (32.0), Coal India (23.1), Pemex (22.7), Petróleos de Venezuela (15.8), PetroChina (15.6), Peabody Energy (15.4), Conoco-Philips (15.2), Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (13.8), Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (13.5), Iraq National Oil Co. (12.6), Total SA (12.4), Sonatrach (12.3), BHP Billiton (9.8), Petrobras (8.7).

Schools and Solar Power

First image:

Bar chart titled "Schools and solar power" comparing the hours of sunlight and the hours of a typical school day in China, USA, Brazil, France, South Korea, Russia, and Australia. For all countries, the school day is within daylight hours.

Individual Carbon Footprint and Collective Action

First image:

An infographic, shaped like the cells of a beehive, showing the elements considered when calculating an individual's "carbon footprint." The phrase "Tons of Carbon" sits at the center of all the cells, surrounded by small labeled graphics. From top to bottom, left to right, the cells say: Number of Inhabitants, Home modifications, Entertainment, Home age, Home size, Equipment, Type of construction materials, Clothing choices, Furnishing, Tons of Carbon, Shopping habits, Flights, Diet, Public transportation, Car use, Animal Products, Car model, Local food, Car make.

Indigenous Youth Represent Their Culture to Demand Action

First image:

Photograph of the Mola sail and traditionally dressed Guna activists.

The State of Climate Change Litigation

First image:

A line graph titled "Active climate litigation cases". The x-axis is years from 2017 to 2020. The y-axis is the number of cases, with 654 US cases and 230 cases in the rest of the world in 2017 and 1,200 cases in the US and 350 cases in the rest of the world in 2020.

What Are Cities Doing? (The C40)

First image:

Infographic titled "The impact of city to city sharing." There are 97 member cities in the C40. 25% of the global economy is made up of C40 cities. 700+million people make up the members of the C40. Between 2009 and 2020: the number of C40 cities restricting high-polluting vehicles increased by over 700%, going from 3 to 23; the number of C40 cities with a cycle hire scheme increased by over 600%, going from 14 to 86; the number of C40 cities incentivizing renewable electricity increased by 650%, going from 4 to 26; the number of C40 cities investing to tackle flood risk increased almost 1400%, going from 4 to more than 55.

Saint Kateri Habitats

First image:

Graphic showing a happy walking bear, meant to evoke the "Grateful Dead" art style.

The Positive Impact of Sustainability on Investor Returns

First image:

Line graph titled "Number of PRI signatories." The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment had 63 signatories in 2006 and 3,826 signatories in 2021.

Second image:

A bar chart titled "Yearly inflows into ESG mutual funds and ETFs ($B). The bars combine Mutual Funds (represented in black) and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) (represented in gray). 2015: Mutual funds of $9.8B, no ETFs. 2016: $14.1B combined Mutual Funds and sliver of ETFs. 2017: $36.9B combined Mutual Funds and larger sliver of ETFs. 2018: $15.6B split pretty evenly between Mutual Funds and ETFs. 2019: $69.1B with two-thirds from Mutual Funds and one-third from ETFs. 2020: $103.1B from Mutual Funds and $71.7B from ETFs, for a total of $174.8B -- marking a dramatic increase into ESG products.

Wealth and Greenhouse Gases

First image:

Three line graphs with the heading, "Change in CO2 emissions and GDP per capita over time." Each chart has a solid line showing change in GDP between 1990 and 2020 and a dotted line showing CO2 emissions over the same time period. The first country, Nigeria, shows a dip in both GDP and CO2 in the late 90s/early 2000s, followed by a steady increase in CO2 emissions (up 63%) and a more uneven increase in GDP (with many ups and downs) at 51% increase over 1990 levels. The second country, Romania has seen a steady decline and then leveling out of CO2 emissions, down 41% since 1990. Meanwhile GDP has risen steadily, with a few dips, ending at +117%. The third country, the United Kingdom, held CO2 emissions steady through approximately 15 years of economic growth and then began steadily cutting emissions so that they are down 34% relative to 1990. The UK's GDP is up 37% over 1990, having taken a dramatic hit after Brexit.

Second image:

Scatter plot titled "GDP per capita vs yearly CO2 emissions per capita" The y-axis measures tons of CO2 emissions and the x-axis shows GDP per capita. Most countries are represented by gray unlabeled dots and are clustered in the bottom quadrant (0 to 10 tons). Seven countries are named. India (7,2) is closest to the bottom and furthest left - meaning their CO2 emissions and GDP per capita are the lowest of the highlighted countries. Moving to the right and up, China (15,8) is next. Norway (80,9) and Switzerland (60,5) are both to the right of China (much higher GDP) but not significantly higher on CO2. In the second quadrant (11 to 20 tons) are Russia (20,11) and the United States (50,17). Three unlabelled countries fall into the third quadrant. Qatar (100, 39) is the only country in the 4th quadrant.

Where You Bank Makes A Difference

First image:

Cartoon showing a man in a tattered business suit sitting cross-legged at a campfire with three children who are also dressed in rags on the other side. A city-scape skyline is seen in the distance. A crushed can sits on the ground. There are no plants or anything living. The man is saying to the children, "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."

Global Climate Youth Activists

First image:

Photograph of climate activist Greta Thunberg standing in front of the Swedish Parliament with her sign displaying, "Skolstrejk för Klimatet".

Influential Artists and Climate

First image:

Photograph by Lisa K. Blatt of boulders on a dry barren landscape.

Countries Leading Climate Change Action

First image:

Pie chart showing how countries actions are weighted in the leadership rankings: 40% GHG Emissions, 20% Climate Policy, 20% Energy Use, 20% Renewable Energy.

Getting Started with Climate Action

First image:

Three panel cartoon titled, "Goldilocks Tackles Climate Change." The first panel shows a young girl standing in a garbage dump, covered in soot and holding a broom. In the background are factory smoke stacks billowing black smoke. She says, "This task feels too big." In the second panel, the same young girl (dressed in pig-tails, blouse, pleated skirt, and white socks with black patent leather shoes) is putting a scrap into a recycling bin. She says, "This task feels too small." In the third panel, the same young girl is wearing coveralls and a hard-hat over her blouse and holding a wrench. She is standing on a rooftop next to solar panels. Workers in the background are installing solar panels on other roofs. She says,"This task feels just right!"

The Educators Guide

First image:

Cartoon showing living room with couch and glowing TV. The mom is hiding in a couch cushion fort on the floor, peeking out the fort's top with wide worried eyes. Two kids stand to the side, one holding a TV remote. The caption says, "Whenever I want my mom to play fort, I just turn on news about climate change."

Does Farm Size Matter?

First image:

Bar chart titled, "Average farm size across the globe, as of 2000." Nine countries are listed, from largest to smallest, starting with the United States at 178.4 hectares(ha). This is followed by a number of mid-sized farming countries - Brazil (72.8ha), United Kingdom (70.9ha). France (45ha), Austria (34.1ha). At the bottom of the chart are countries with small average farm size - India (1.3ha), Ethiopia (1ha), and Vietnam (.7ha).

Advances in Solar Power

First image:

Line graph titled, "Solar power. Cost per watt generated." The x-axis shows years from 1976 to 2019. The y-axis shows cost per watt. In 1976 the price was US $106.08. This price fell dramatically through the 1980s and 90s. It has leveled off in the past decade, but continues to fall slowly - reaching US $0.38 per watt in 2019.

Using Agriculture as a Carbon Sink

First image:

Infographic filling most of the space on the page in black to represent 133 gigatons of carbon dioxide.Two white double pointed lines point to all four corners of the black box and are labeled as 59.4KM cubed. A small white cube represents the relative size of the New York City Skyline as compared with 133 GT of CO2.

Replenishing Forests

First image:

Infographic titled, "1 ton of CO2." On the left is a cube of wood. On the right is a penguin graphic. A double pointed line is labeled as 1m. The caption reads, "1 ton of CO2 equals a cube of wood about one meter on each side about the size of a female emperor penguin."

Cross-Laminated Timber

First image:

Infographic titled, "Carbon cycle in the built environment." An array of honeycomb cells, in two shades of gray, showing aspects of the built environment. A large dark gray arrow labeled CO2, points up, showing the components of the built environment that release CO2. These include Resource extraction from nature (largest), Nongreen construction, Manufacturing, Building usage, Disposal. At the bottom of the infographic, are light gray honeycombs labeled - Green construction, Recycling, and Solar-powered green home with a much smaller light gray arrow pointing down, labeled CO2.

Energy-Efficient Cars

First image:

Infographic showing the car profile of the twelve most efficient cars in 2021, with name labels underneath each profile and the Green Score in a bubble on the side.

How Roundabouts Help Lower Emissions

First image:

Infographic titled, "The magic roundabout." The image shows a five part roundabout that keeps traffic moving.

Energy Payback for Renewables

First image:

Infographic titled, "Energy payback time over 25 years (300 months)." Four types of renewable energy are listed: Onshore Wind; Solar, Equator; Offshore Wind; Solar, Mid Latitudes. Payback time is represented as a horizontal bar for each energy type. A black portion of the bar shows "Months to offset carbon cost of construction." A gray portion of the bar shows "Months of carbon-free electricity." For each of these types of energy, the months of time to offset the carbon cost of construction is very small relative to the 25 years of production. Specifically: Onshore Wind: 5 months offset, 295 months carbon-free electricity; Solar, Equator: 8 months offset, 292 months carbon-free electricity; Offshore Wind: 8 months offset, 292 months carbon-free electricity; Solar, Mid Latitudes: 15 months offset, 285 months carbon-free electricity.

Chocolate and Climate

First image:

Icon graphic of a bar of chocolate, with the lower quadrant broken off and sitting nearby, with crumbs.

The Rise of E-Bikes

First image:

Icon graphic of a twisting road with a car at the top and a bicycle at the bottom.

About Milk and Its Alternatives

First image:

Infographic titled "Milk Alternatives" shows "Environmental Impact" as well as “Nutritional Impact.” Soy milk, Oat milk, Rice Milk and Almond MIlk are compared against Traditional cow's milk by water consumption, land use, and GHG emissions. The comparison shows that cow's milk uses far more land and water and produces more GHG than any of the other milks. Those same milks are then compared across protein content, calcium content, and B12 content. All the milks have similar calcium and B12 content. Protein content in grams is: Soy MIlk (36), Cow's milk (33), Oat milk (13), Almond milk (6), Rice milk (3).

The Changing Cost of Power

First image:

Infographic titled, "Dollars per megawatt-hour" that looks like the sign at a gas station listing prices. Solar 28.00, Wind 26.00, Gas 45.00, and Coal 65.00.

Hydrogen for Energy Storage

First image:

Cartoon showing an older man dressed like a farmer standing with a young man in shorts and a baseball hat. They both have hands in pockets and are looking at a vast wind farm. The older man is saying, "The four-bladed ones are especially good luck."

Geoengineering

First image:

Line art graphic showing two hands holding the earth.

Mass Transit

First image:

Infographic showing how much space 50 people take up on a road in different modes of transit. The first example is 50 people walking, represented by 50 dots on the road. Second, is 50 people riding bikes. They take up just under half the road space. Third is 50 people on a bus, taking up about the same space as walking. Fourth is 50 people in 36 cars. This takes up all the road space.

Green Building Certifications

First image:

Bizarro cartoon showing a living room. The wife stands with arms crossed in ankle deep water saying, "I was hoping it wouldn't take this to convince you of climate change." The husband is shown with glasses flying off and slippered feet in the air as a tentacle from a giant squid wraps around his torso, pulling him up. The tentacle is coming through a broken window, with water gushing through and the giant squid looks through a nearby window to see what it is doing. The implication is that the family's house is completely underwater.

Drip Irrigation

First image:

Bizarro cartoon showing a man in a suit holding out a bouquet of flowers to a woman in a black cocktail dress and heels, who has just opened her front door. The man says, "I found some beautiful things and killed them so you could watch them decay."

Forests Support Food Security

First image:

Bar chart titled, "Number of wild species used for food: East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania." Leafy vegetables (30): Forest (9), Other land types (21). Fruits (20): Forest (10), Other land types (10). Mushrooms (8): Forest (3), Other land types (5). Birds (12): Forest (10), Other land types (2). Mammals (5): Forest (4), Other land types (1).

Second image:

Bar chart titled, "Countries with the most forested area per capita." From most to least in (thousand hectares): Canada (94.5); Russia (56); Australia (51); Bolivia (48.4); Zambia (28.7); Brazil (23.7); Peru (23.4); Angola (19.3); DR Congo (18.7); Colombia (12); United States (9.56); Mexico (5.28); Indonesia (3.39); China (1.49); India (531 hectares).

Eco-Anxiety

First image:

Graphic of a pair of lower arms and hands surrounded by leaves illustrated in such a way as to evoke the image of a tree.

Composting

First image:

Hand-drawn line graph titled, "Global Average Temperature: Over my Lifetime (60-month running June Average, NOAA NCEI Time Series)" The y-axis is 0 degrees Celsius to +1 degree Celsius. The x-axis is 1980 to 2020. A line graph charts temperature change over 40 years. The illustrator charts the events of their life against the changing temperature. Starting from the bottom, the entries are: "November 1982, Exxon internal report predicts that fossil fuel use will raise global temperatures to about 1degree C above their normal levels within 40 years. October 1984, I'm born in Easton, PA. Summer 1991, I learn to ride a bike. Spring 1992, My elementary school celebrates Earth Day and I learn about the greenhouse effect. 1993-1999, I get very into Star Wars and Animorphs. Fall 1996, I stand around awkwardly at my first middle school dance. Spring 2002, I get accepted into college. Spring 2006, I somehow graduate despite spending most of my time playing Mario Kart. Summer 2006, I see an Inconvenient Truth in the theater and feel anxious. Fall 2011, I get married. Summer 2012, I read headlines about a global warming "pause" and hope that maybe things aren't so bad. 2013-2021, I read more about climate science and get steadily more alarmed. Spring 2016, I read the 1982 Exxon Report. June 2020, Global 60-Month average reaches +0.94 degrees C. Easton, PA is 2 degrees C hotter than normal for the fifth year in a row. Today." Just above today is an X enclosed in a circle and labeled "1982 Exxon prediction."

The Challenges of Critical Mineral Needs for Clean Energy

First image:

Hand-drawn graphic of five mineral rocks.

How Much Carbon Are We Talking About?

First image:

Graphic stretching the length of the page and comprising 10,000 small dots. All but 4 of these dots are light gray. Three in the middle of a column are black, which represents the amount of carbon in each breath of air. The remaining 9,997 parts of a breath of air are other elements. Close to the three black dots is a fourth black dot, representing the increase in carbon since 1968.

What Do I Get for 1kg CO2?

First image:

Ten line art drawings showing how CO2 is produced during common activities. All activities have been scaled to 1kg CO2. Shower: 10 minutes, 40 watt light bulb: 25 hours, 73 Emails, 200 Google Searches, 10 average size Apples, 180 plastic grocery Bags, LED light: 125 hours, Owning a dog: 1/2 day, Walking: 24km, Mobile phone: 0.016 iPhone, Raising a child in North America: 12 minutes, Jeans: about 10 square inches of denim, Boeing 737-400 plane: 7km/passenger, Bus ride 80% passenger load: 9.5km, Car ride: 8 km, Cycling: 48 km, Beef: 35 grams, Charcoal BBQ: 22 minutes, 2 average size Avocados, 2 kg Broccoli, 100g Cheese, 5 average size Eggs.

Our Choices Can Have a Lethal Impact

First image:

Infographic titled, "How many people does it take?" shows how many theoretical people it takes in the United States, Brazil, and Nigeria to produce 4,434 metric tons of CO2. United States: 3.5 people; Brazil: 25 people; Nigeria: 146 people. 3.5 Americans produce as much CO2 as 146 Nigerians.

10 Myths About Climate Change

First image:

Bar graph shows the changes in the global average surface temperature (in degrees Celsius - °C) since the beginning of the industrial revolution. From about 1880 until 1940, the average surface temperature change fluctuated but all fell below 0.0°C baseline . From 1940 to about 1980, there were periods of change that fluctuated above AND below the baseline of up to 0.2°C. Since 1980, the trend in average surface temperature shows that all anomalies were in excess of the baseline, ranging from an increase of 0.2 to 1.0°C where we are today.

Second image:

Line graph shows the changes in the price of electricity from new power plants per kWh from 2009 to 2019. The price for a new coal fired power plant is nearly unchanged ($111 to $109 in kWh during this period. The price to build an offshore wind farm has dropped from $359 per kWh to $41 per kWh. The cost to produce solar (photovoltaic) power is down from $135/kWh to $40/kWh.

Third image:

Illustration depicts a large recycling receptacle with a steady stream of many different recyclable materials flowing into it. The large number 9 is the percentage of plastic (regardless of the symbol stamped on the plastic) that is recycled, emphasizing the small fraction that is actually recycled while the rest is left to be incinerated or accumulated in landfills or oceans.

Smoke Signals: A Global Warning from Australia

First image:

Line graph shows the historical changes in the temperature in Australia. The baseline is the historical average. The data starts in 1910 and through most of the 1950s, the change in surface temperature is largely below the average. The trend then moves above the average steadily increasing from the early 1970s up to nearly 1.5°C above in 2020.

The Relationship between Population Growth and Emissions

First image:

Circle made up primarily of human figures, with one sector filled instead with images of cornstalks. The image evokes the Pacman character of the popular video game, which is essentially a pie with one slice removed, to represent Pacman’s mouth. Human figures comprise the Pacman, and cornstalks fill its ‘mouth.’ The image invites the reader to ask: Is the population growing larger and larger and will there be enough food (represented by the corn) to sustain life?

Second image:

Line graph compares the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and the global population throughout history. Starting in 5000 BCE, with a population estimated at 5 Million, the global population is represented by a flat line, showing very consistent population levels until the industrial revolution where the line turns 90 degrees straight up all the way to 7.7 Billion people. Over the same time, and following the same trajectory, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is a flat line at 258.1 ppm (where it is stable for 1000s of years) until it curves sharply upward to 412.5 ppm in the 21st century.

The True Cost of Plastic

First image:

Infographic illustrating the percentage of plastic that is successfully recycled. In this image we see the number 8300 in an extra-large font (the number of million tons of plastic produced). Of that 8300 million tons, 5800 million tons of the plastic (shown in a slightly smaller font below) is used only once. The number 500 in yet a much smaller font represents the 500 million tons of plastic that is recycled each year. Beneath that, in the smallest font, only 100 million tons of plastic are successfully recycled and still in use.

What Is an Ecosystem?

First image:

Four frame comic strip, beginning with two stick figures pointing to a line graph. Line graph shows time on the bottom X-axis, and the Y axis progresses from “good” to “bad.” The line graph shows a clear upward trajectory, with “now” labeled as just below the “bad” delineation. The figures say, “Here’s the situation: This line is here. But it’s going up towards HERE,” as one points to the “bad” section.

In the second panel, a bystander in a hat says, “so things will be bad?” Presenter says, “Unless someone does something to stop it.” Bystander says, “Will anyone do that?” Presenter says, “...We don’t know. That’s why we’re showing you this.”

In the third panel, the bystander is out of the frame, but their words float back, “So you don’t know, and the graph says things are NOT bad.” Presenter answers, “But if no one acts, they’ll BECOME bad.” In the final panel, the bystander says, “Well, please let me know if that happens!” Presenter says, “Based on this conversation, it already has.”

The Diffusion of Innovations

First image:

Graph of a bell curve illustrates the speed at which people adopt new ideas. True innovators make up only 2.5% of the population, and make up a small portion of the left side of the curve, very close to the X-axis, which is 0%. Next, early adopters make up 13.5% of the population, shown by the upward slope of the curve. The next group to embrace new ideas or innovations are the Early Majority at 34% of the population, with which the bell curve reaches its apex. These first three groups represent half of the population. The remaining half of the population is the Late Majority group (at 34% the same size as the Early Majority), and, as the curve slopes down and ultimately reaches the x-axis again, the Laggards are depicted at 16%.

What is Climate Change?

First image:

Stylized line graph depicts the Y-axis as a thermometer, starting at 0°C and moving up to 1°C. The X-axis is the severity of the weather. Instead of a traditional line, there is an illustration of a storm. On the left side of the illustration, the top of the clouds lines up with the 0°C of the Y-axis thermometer. The top of the rain cloud rises up to the 1°C mark of the thermometer as the severity of weather increases along the Y-axis. As the graph progresses, the severity of the weather increases, showing heavier rain, thundershowers, lightning, hail, and cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes as the earth's temperature increases by 1°C. The weather severity is illustrated with increasing intensity in the clouds, as well as in the precipitation and wind.

Second image:

Illustration of a squirrel holding a nut.

Understanding the Greenhouse Effect

First image:

Image shows the earth, its atmosphere, and the sun twice, right next to each other. The earth on the left shows a thin dotted line as the atmosphere, and represents the earth before humans began burning fossil fuels, when heat easily escaped the atmosphere with just a little bit being reflected back onto the earth. The caption on the left reads, “Before humans began burning fossil fuels, heat easily escaped the atmosphere.” The earth on the right shows a much thicker dotted line as the atmosphere. The caption to the right reads, “As greenhouse gasses accumulate, more heat is reflected back into the atmosphere.”

Carbon Inequality, Climate Change, and Class

First image:

Infographic depicts one large person superimposed on a large gray arrow, pointing upward, with the value of 15% in the arrowhead, illustrating that the richest 1% contribute 15% of global emissions. Next to this image, there are five rows of ten human figures that together are the same height as the single large figure. The arrow that they are superimposed on is smaller, with the value of 7% in the arrowhead, showing that the 50% of the poorest population together contribute only 7% of the global emissions. The caption reads, “The richest 1 percent of humanity was responsible for 15 percent of global emissions compared to 7 percent from the poorest 50 percent. That's more than double the emissions from a small fraction of the people.”

Urban Heat Islands

First image:

Image of a dense urban skyline surrounded by arrows that symbolize energy, heat, and emissions that are directed back down on the city in an arc. The caption reads, “Cities trap heat due to pollution from factories and transportation, and materials such as concrete and asphalt. And the air conditioning used to cool us down emits more heat and even HFCs.

Heating the Outdoors with Patio Heaters

First image:

Line graph of the Google search interest in the phrase "patio heater" from 2017 through the end of 2021. From a baseline of interest in 2017, you can see a substantial pick up in interest in the fourth quarter of each year (as winter approaches) which then drops back down as the weather warms up. In 2020, there was a spike of interest in the second quarter, and then in the fourth quarter, interest picked up by about a factor of three in magnitude. Interest in 2021 did not return to the baseline until midway through the year, and the fourth quarter spike of interest was less than 2020, but greater than that of 2017, 2018, and 2019.

The Energy Cost of Plug Loads

First image:

Pie chart shows that only a small slice, about 6%, of the total US energy usage is attributed to commercial plug loads, and 94% to all other US energy usage.

Increased Ozone Inhibits Photosynthesis

First image:

Image shows an arrow labeled O3 (the chemical symbol for Ozone) pointing down to a wilting flower.

Where Does All the Carbon Go?

First image:

Pie chart shows 25% of carbon dioxide is absorbed by water, about 30% of carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants and the associated soil, leaving about 45% of carbon dioxide produced that is not naturally absorbed.

Temperature Change on Earth

First image:

Line graph shows the average annual temperature of the years between 1961 and 1990 of 14°C (57°F) as a straight horizontal dotted line. This is used to allow the viewer to compare this to the variation of the average surface temperature over the last two thousand years. The annual average temperature changes show a predictably cyclic style of peaks and valleys, that range between the comparable 14°C at the highest end, and 0.4°C below that for one thousand years. The range decreases then until the high point is roughly equivalent to the low point for years 0CE through 1,000 CE, until it begins steadily increasing around 1900 CE, and spiking to 0.7°C above the comparable average of 14°C.

The annual actual temperature (in recent years where we are confident of its accuracy) sets the "zero point" for the Y-Axis for temperature change from average. It is quite significant to see substantial variation in the average temperature over the centuries following a predictably cyclic style of peaks and valleys that are associated with longer term weather patterns. The cycle takes a large and significant increase in the temperature increase of over 1°C in about 100 years that is not consistent with the patterns of the last two millennia.

Second image:

Line graph compares the global temperature and the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth during the period from 1880 to 2020.There is a mild inverse relationship between the two through the early years, suggesting that new equilibriums are reached as the greenhouse gas production increases. There is a dramatic increase and divergence between the two beginning around 1960 and accelerating around 1990, showing that while the radiance from the sun has decreased since 1990, the global temperature has increased.

Beyond the Polar Bear—Animals on the Edge of Extinction

First image:

There is an image of each of the listed endangered animals next to the name. The left hand column lists Tigers, Bumblebees, Whales, Asian Elephants, African Elephants, Snow Leopards, Mountain Gorillas, Polar Bears, Monarch Butterflies, Giant Pandas, and Sharks. The column on the right hand side lists Giraffes, Insects, Coral Reefs, Ringed Seals, Atlantic Cod, Koalas, Leatherback Sea Turtles, Adelie Penguins, American Pikas, Orange-spotted Filefish, and Green Sea Turtles.

Carbon Feedback Cycles

First image:

Illustration of the carbon feedback cycles (positive and negative) on the earth in a circular image. The concentration of atmospheric carbon (shown at the bottom of the circle) influences climate change as measured by temperature increases (at the top of the circle) directly by radiative forcing (through the circle).

The circle is labeled in four places as Climate Change at the 12 o’clock position, Land Carbon at the 9 o’clock position, Atmosphere Carbon at the 6 o’clock position, and Ocean Carbon at the 3 o’clock position.

There are four arrows labeled as Carbon Uptake, Partial Pressure,Fertilization Effect, and CO2 Solubility.

An arrow arcing down from Climate Change points to Land Carbon, (the total vegetation and soils). The surface temperature affects the CO2 solubility and human respiration. The CO2 released by human respiration is absorbed in the Land Carbon, (the vegetation and soils on the planet). From Land Carbon, an arrow labeled Carbon Uptake points to Atmosphere Carbon. The changes in CO2 solubility impact the carbon that is absorbed by the ocean. The ocean solubility is also affected by the partial pressure of the atmospheric carbon. When the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is not in equilibrium with the ocean and land, it cannot be absorbed, increasing the Carbon content in the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

Meanwhile, an arrow labeled Fertilization Effect points from Atmosphere Carbon back to Land Carbon. The amount of carbon the land can absorb is impacted by the Fertilization Effect, and the carbon that is not absorbed by land contributes to the Atmosphere Carbon, which impacts the Fertilization Effect. Similarly, another arrow labeled CO2 solubility arcs down from Climate Change at the 12 o’clock position on the circle, down to Ocean Carbon at the 3 o’clock position. An arrow labeled Carbon Uptake points from Ocean Carbon down to Atmosphere Carbon at the 6 o’clock position, while an arrow labeled Partial Pressure points from Atmosphere Carbon to Ocean Carbon.

As the atmospheric carbon increases, the plants are less healthy and are unable to absorb more carbon.

Paving the Planet

First image:

Image of the country of Germany that shows every road that has been built in the last 200 years. Population density is clear based on the number of roads depicted. The significance of this type of map is that the geography and the population distribution of the country is illustrated based on where the roads are. No matter what country you live in, what state, or what city, we see that we are defined by our roadways. While no other features are marked on the map, the hills and valleys are obvious as the roads traverse around them, and the sparser web of roads are the less populated areas. How does this make you feel? Is your life defined by the miles you drive? Are there changes that you are now thinking about making?

The Impact of Thawing Permafrost

First image:

Image of a melting earth in an ice cream cone. The earth has a frowning face and steam or smoke above it. The reader is invited to consider if the earth is angry that it is melting. How do you feel about this?

Flooding

First image:

Line graph shows the sea level increase between 1880 and 2020 as measured by a change from the weighted average sea level over the 15 year period from 1993 to 2008. It fluctuates a little bit, but is largely a straight line increase between 1880 and 2020. In 1880, the sea level was 18.3 cm BELOW the weighted average sea level and in 2020, the sea level is at the highest point measured at 6.2cm above the 1993-2008 average. This is a total of 24.5 cm increase over the 140 year period.

Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones

First image:

Multi variable line graph showing the number of three unique global weather-related disasters (floods, extreme weather events, and landslides) over the fifty year period from 1969 to 2019. Each variable is plotted alongside a dotted line running straight from the 1969 number to the 2019 number, so show the increase over time. There is little variation from the average in the number of landslides (22) over the period. Extreme weather events (85) show an increase over time, showing that more of these events happened in later years. Flooding (170 events) shows the greatest increase in events, especially in more recent years. As noted in the text with this article, extreme weather events are more frequent, more intense, and last longer, compounding the damage they cause.

Snowfall and Melting Arctic Ice

First image:

Illustration of a polar bear floating on an iceberg.

Marine Heat Waves

First image:

Bar chart shows the length of the Marine Heat Waves for each of the listed major oceans over the last 10 years, and for comparison also shows that recorded marine heat waves from 1980 to 2010 totaled between 10-50 days. The ocean with the highest marine heat wave incidence (at 357 days) occurred in the Northeast Pacific between 2013 and 2015. The Southern Ocean had 183 days of Marine Heat waves, the Tasman Sean had 175 days in 2015 and 2016, and Western Australian was 101 days in 2011. Rounding out the chart are the Indo-Australian Basin (2016) with 90 days, the Southwest Atlantic (2017) with 82 days, and the Northwest Atlantic (2012) with 57 days.

Extreme Precipitation

First image:

Bar graph shows the worldwide increase in annual precipitation (measured in inches) over the period from 1901 to 2019. In the first half of the twentieth century, 80 to 90% of the years had precipitation below the global average.The range of variations was between -2” to +1.5”. From about 1950 through 2019, 20 to 30% of the years had below average precipitation, with the range of variability increasing to -2” to +4”.

The remaining years are all above average with two points worth noting. The amount of the actual increase above average is significantly larger (up to double in some years) than in the first half of the century, and that there are many groupings with five or more consecutive years of above average annual rainfall. Intense rainfall events in a single region or country do create these world wide impacts. The article notes that flash floods, deaths, and loss of property and livelihoods result. What else can you envision?

Impact of Carbon Exports & Imports

First image:

Bar graph shows the distribution of carbon exports and imports across nations. The USA, Japan, and the UK are the three largest importers of carbon. Only six nations are listed as exporters of carbon. China is the largest exporter of carbon by far, with Russia, India, and South Africa next in line, followed by Iran, Ukraine, and Qatar.

Soil Loss

First image:

Black and white image of a small piece of parched land. The sun beats down on the earth which is radiating heat back up. The soil is so dry it has cracked, a tree seems to be barely growing and has no leaves.

Population Growth

First image:

Line graph that compares how the world fertility rate (live births per woman) have changed since 1950 through today and as forecasted through 2099. There are three lines, one for the annual average of low income countries, one for the annual average of high income countries, and one for the average of the world. Low income countries not only had the highest initial historic birth rate (6.3), but it actually rose slightly for a period of maybe 3 decades before it began to fall. The fertility rate of these low income countries is expected to continue to fall slowly but at its expected value of 2.1 at the end of the 21st century, it will likely remain above both the world average and that of high income countries. The high income countries had a fertility rate of 3.0 live births per woman in 1950, and while it remained flat for 10-20 years, it started to drop quickly and is expected to stay around 1.8 through the end of the 21st century.

Second image:

Stacked line graph that shows the worldwide population growth from 1.5 Billion in 1960 to a projected 10.9 Billion in 2100. The graph shows the cumulative global population in a stacked manner to show how Asia, Africa, North America, Europe, South America, and Oceania contribute to that total.

The first region that is shown as the base of the graph is Asia. Initially it had a very large rate of increase in population from 1960 to 2020, but the rate is slowing down and the population total of Asia is expected to drop about mid century. The population history of Africa is layered on top of Asia. Starting with a smaller initial population, and the fastest rate of growth, the population in Africa is expected to surpass that of Asia by 2100. North America, Europe, South America and Oceania are layered on the chart above Africa, and contribute a consistent portion of the worldwide population through 2100

Wildfires

First image:

Map of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska of course, with a black rectangle with flames covering the middle half of the continental United States. Text superimposed on black rectangle states, “Wildfires affect a yearly total of 400 million hectares of land worldwide - about half the size of the United States.”

2020 Covid Lockdown and Climate

First image:

Satellite photo of most of the greater Asian continent in December 2019 pre COVID-19 Pandemic.Three quarters of the map is covered in white, covering nearly all of the land, and a portion of the water, to represent the NO2 emissions present.

Second image:

Satellite photo of most of the greater Asian continent in February 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 government-imposed restrictions. The white indications of NO2 are much lighter and cover only about one quarter of the map.

Third image:

Line graph of Self-reported Food Waste from November 2019 through April 2021. As the pandemic swept the world and people were locked down, this measure of self-reported food waste dropped by almost 50% in April of 2020, down to 13.7% as compared to 24.1% in November 2019. It increased to 18.7% in April 2021, but food waste remains lower than before the pandemic.

Food and Waterborne Diarrheal Disease

First image:

Image of a container ship on the water.

The Shrinking of Glaciers

First image:

Bar chart illustrates the glacial loss per year in Gigatons. Alaska is the highest at 68 gigatons per year. Greenland and its periphery lose 36 Gigatons per year. The North and South of Arctic Canada lose 31 and 27 Gigatons per year, respectively. Antarctica (and Sub Antarctica), High Mountain Asia and the Southern Andes each lose 21 Gigatons each year.

Agricultural Pests and Diseases

First image:

Images of many different insects crawl across every available space on the page..

Food Production and Availability

First image:

Photograph of what is believed to be a Banksy street art mural in London. The mural is on a low concrete wall at a site occupied by climate activists during London protests. The image depicts a young girl wearing a head covering, possibly hungry and in threadbare clothes.. She is kneeling in the dirt with a shovel and a small plant and is looking up towards writing on the wall. On the wall the words read "From this moment despair ends and tactics begin". The girls holds an object with an image of an hourglass in a circle, which is known as the Extinction Rebellion logo. The reader is invited to wonder, “What is she holding? Will the tiny plant near her grow? Why is food so unequally available? (To learn more about this mural, look up both Banksy and Extinction Rebellion.)

Food Price Spikes

First image:

A grocery receipt from the fictitious “Price Hikes” store, located on “Planet Earth”. Four items are listed: Maize, Rice, Wheat, and "Other crops". In place of a price for each item, instead the projected decline in growth and the projected increase in price is listed. The growth rate for maize is expected to drop by 12%, leading to a potential 90% increase in price. Similarly rice production is expected to decline by 23% with an 89% increase in price, and wheat production is expected to decline by 13% with a 75% increase in price. Other crops are expected to decline in yields by 8%, and show an 83% increase in price.

Threats to Coastal Communities

First image:

List of large coastal communities that are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and the effects of climate change. Each city name is partially obscured by a small artistic wave. The cities listed are Tokyo, Mumbai, New York City, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Calcutta, Buenos Aires, Lagos, Bangkok, Venice, Basra, Jakarta, Rotterdam, and Ho Chi Minh.

Displaced Human Communities

First image:

Map of the world that shows the distribution of millions of people who have been or will be displaced by climate change. The artist uses circles of differing sizes that correlate to the magnitude of the population displacements in addition to the estimated value. The values shown on the image are as follows: Sub Saharan Africa 86 million, South Asia 40 million, East Asia and the Pacific 49 million, Latin America 17 million, North Africa 19 million, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia 5 million. It is notable that only North America and the Australian continents do not have expected population displacements due to climate change.

The Economics of Rising Temperatures

First image:

Table listing the projected decreases in GDP for each region in 4 different scenarios. A bar illustrates the magnitude of the decrease so the values are readily comparable. The column labeled “Paris target” shows the projected decline in GDP as ranging from 2.8% to 5.5% should the global average temperature increase less than 2 degrees Celsius. More likely scenarios show that at a 2 degree increase, GDP will decrease between 6.9% and 14.9%, and at a 2.6 degree increase, GDP will decrease between 7.4% and 21.5%. In the most severe scenario, an increase of 3.2 degrees, GDP will decline by 9.5% to 27.6%.

Effects of Carbon-Based Cooking Fuel

First image:

Pie chart showing the distribution between clean and polluting fuels used for cooking in low-income countries. Clean fuels account for 12% of the total use with 88% of the household fuels being of a polluting nature.

Second image:

A Bizarro single frame comic depicting two insects chatting in the year 3011.The insects are wearing toga-like drapes and sitting on pieces of broken Greek or Roman columns and a portion of a grand building in the background. One insect asks "can a species that eliminates itself in just a few million years be called successful?"

Third image:

A Bizarro single frame comic that depicts a small, skinny animal like a meerkat up on its hind legs, asking a much larger and stronger-looking gorilla about his diet. "No meat at all? Are you sure that you're getting enough protein?" The reader is invited to reflect on their own dietary preferences.

Carbon and the Oceans

First image:

Graphic depicting three analog clocks in a row on a wall, all with the hands showing the same time, 12 noon. The first one is a circular clock, and is labeled "clock". The second is labeled Cuckoo Clock and has a pendulum and doors that open to allow a mock cuckoo bird to emerge. The third clock on the wall looks like a cuckoo clock, but is labeled the CO2 Clock. Instead of a bird tweeting as it comes through the doors to alert, there is a small globe that pops out which is on fire. Next to it is a quote by Patrick Odler about the time to act, being NOW.

Ocean Acidity

First image:

Line graph depicting the change in ocean acidity from 1988 to present and splitting into five potential paths on how the acidity of the ocean could change over the next 80 to 100 years. The main line shows that since 1988, the acidity of the ocean has dropped from just over a pH of 8.1 to a pH of about 8.03. It may seem a small number, but a small change in pH has a big impact on the acidity and on the ecosystems of the ocean. The ocean is getting more acidic due to the CO2 it is absorbing. Other lines diverging from the main line show that by 2098 the current ocean PH could drop more but recover to above 8.0 pH. Some lines show ocean pH dropping to as low as 7.66 pH by 2098. Scientists are working to determine what the impacts of these changes might be. We know for sure that reducing CO2 in the atmosphere will have a positive impact on the oceans.

10-, 50-, 100-, and 1,000-Year Climate Events

First image:

Graphic depicting dot matrix grids of 100 dots each. Each dot matrix represents the likelihood of heat waves represented by dark dots. The first dot matrix represents the period of 1850-1900 with 10 black dots to represent the likelihood of heat waves.The next four images are the scenarios for today, with a 1°C increase in global temperature, and three possible futures expected 10 years from now (1.5°C, 2°C, and 4°C). The dot matrix representing today depicts more than double the number of darkened dots to show that the likelihood of heat waves increased to 2.8 times the 1850-1900 average. Heatwaves are 4.1 times, 5.6 times, and 9.4 times more likely 10 years into the future if the temperatures rise by 1.5°C, 2°C, and 4°C, respectively.

Second image:

Graphic depicting five dot-matrix grids of 100 dots each. The first matrix shows ten black dots amid the 90 remaining gray dots to represent the heavy precipitation days between 1850 and 1900. The next four matrices are the scenarios for today, with a 1°C increase in global temperature, and three future emissions scenarios (1.5°C, 2°C, and 4°C). Today, we are 1.3 times as likely to have a major precipitation event on land in any given year as we were before 1900. The three possible future scenarios show the likelihood increasing to 1.5 times, 1.7 times, up to 2.7 times. This means that in the worst scenario, a precipitation event could happen more often or be up to 30% wetter in the worst case scenario.

Third image:

Graphic depicting five dot-matrix grids of 100 dots each. The number of darkened dots on each matrix represents the likelihood of major droughts. The first matrix represents the frequency of droughts between 1850 and 1900. The next matrix shows the scenario for today, with a 1°C increase in global temperature which makes droughts 1.7 times more likely. Three future scenarios represented with progressively more darkened dots demonstrate that a 1.5°C increase in global temperature will make droughts 2 times as likely. A2°C increase will make droughts 2.4 times as likely. A 4°C increase will make droughts 4 times as likely. In the worst case, the droughts could be up to one standard deviation more intense in terms of soil moisture.

Fourth image:

Graphic depicting dot matrix grids of 100 dots each. Each dot matrix represents the likelihood of heat waves represented by dark dots. The first dot matrix represents the period of 1850-1900 with 6 darkened dots to represent the likelihood of heat waves before 1900.The next four images are the scenarios for today, with a 1°C increase in global temperature, and three possible futures expected 50 years from now (1.5°C, 2°C, and 4°C). The dot matrix representing today depicts more than double the number of darkened dots to show that we are 2.8 times as likely to have a heat wave in any given year. The three alternate scenarios show the likelihood increasing to 8.8 times, 13.9 times, up to 39.2 times. The dot matrix representing the scenario of a 4°C increase in global temperature is almost completely darkened. This means that in the worst scenario, a heat wave would be likely almost every year.

Shifts in the Atlantic Ocean’s Currents

First image:

Image depicting a simplified map of the Atlantic ocean and the ocean currents it contains.

Invisible Carbon Emissions

First image:

Image depicting the clothes line with a few items hanging to dry. The accompanying text in the article describes how use of a clothes line can reduce invisible carbon emissions.

Second image:

Image depicting video conferencing and opting for warm clothing over relying on fossil fuel-generated heat as described in the text.

What’s All This Talk About Carbon?

First image:

Image depicting the many things in our world that produce carbon emissions. There is an airplane in flight, a semi truck and a long line of cars.. There are also many electrical appliances such as a space heater, a laptop, a hair dryer, and a clothes dryer all shown connected to an electrical grid, which receives power from a coal fired power plant.

Weather vs. Climate

First image:

The sketch is of a desert, with mountains in the background. There is a snowstorm happening, and snow is accumulating on two cactus plants. Snow on cactus plants in the desert doesn't quite sound normal to me. Does it sound normal to you?

The Greenhouse Effect

First image:

Graphic depicting a small portion of a city, and the Earth's atmosphere. The sketch shows how greenhouse gasses accumulate in the atmosphere and not only reduce the amount of light from the sun, but that infrared radiation is reflected back to earth because heat and carbon dioxide are unable to escape to outer space.

How Much is a Metric Ton (Tonne)

First image:

Image depicting two different stacks of bricks. The stack on the left depicts 6,300 bricks which is approximately the weight of greenhouse gas emitted per person annually in the United States. The stack on the right depicts 400 bricks which is approximate to the 2050 goal of per person greenhouse gas emissions.

What is Net Zero?

First image:

Image depicting the scale described in the text.

Fast Facts and Definitions

First image:

Image depicting how crude oil might have been formed. Illustrated on the left hand side as 400 million years ago, under the ocean, a magnifying glass shows seawater brimming with microorganisms. As they die, they fall to the bottom of the sea. The right hand side image shows the same ocean as 100 million years ago with sand and silt and mud on top of the decaying micro-organisms which is how sedimentary rock is formed. The decay is anaerobic and with pressure (from increasing layers of sedimentary rock) pushing down and with heat from the core of the earth, crude oil forms deep under the ocean floor.

Second image:

This image is of a gas pump. The gasoline pump handle is off, and a single drop comes from the fueling nozzle, signifying that gasoline supplies will eventually run out.

Climate Change Actions From Large to Small

First image:

Infographic depicting a clipboard and a pen. The clipboard contains what appears to be a checklist of birds that someone who is bird watching or doing a population tally. Some of the birds don't have any hash marks (or tallies) next to them, indicating that none exist in this area. The significance of this image is that tracking bird populations and seeing changes in the bird population is an important part of understanding the impacts of climate change.

Second image:

Infographic shows the time we spend getting to a new city using two different methods. The first, shows getting to the airport terminal, waiting for two hours for a 1 hour flight, spending another 30 minutes getting to the hub of a new city for a meeting. The total carbon that is produced for each passenger on the plane is 82 kg/passenger and it takes a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes. The second transport is using a train. The wait at the train station is only 15 minutes, a 3 hour and 30 minute train ride, which places you directly at the city center. This scenario takes only 15 minutes longer, but produces only 13 kg of carbon per passenger. The message is that every choice we make has an impact. Can you spend 15 additional minutes traveling to cut your carbon emissions for the trip by a factor of more than 6?

Role of Finance

First image:

Bar graph lists ten large banks and shows the distribution of fees earned on energy related loans between Renewable projects and Fossil fuels. The bank with the highest percentage of loans on Renewable projects is HSBC at nearly 35%, followed by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial at 31%. The bank with the lowest percentage for Renewables is Wells Fargo with only 6.1%.

Second image:

Chart showing the change in the allocation of energy sector debt from 2014 to 2020. In 2014, about 5% of the debt issued was for Renewables. In 2020, debt issued for Renewable projects neared parity with fossil fuels, but overall debt since 2014 for Renewable projects was still only a third of the total energy debt. As the total debt issued fluctuates from year to year, the distribution will be important to watch to ensure that investments are being made appropriate with climate goals.

Share of Global GHG Emissions Covered by Carbon Pricing Systems

First image:

Bar chart with years on the x axis showing the approximate share of regional participation carbon pricing systems. The chart shows that only Europe had a carbon pricing system in 2005 (covering about 5% of global emissions). Since 2012, North America, China and Other regions have implemented carbon pricing systems. The chart shows that the overall percentage of GHG emissions covered by carbon pricing has increased but only 21.5% of global emissions are covered by carbon pricing systems.