Global Temperature Over My Lifetime
Global Temperature Over My Lifetime
Graph of temperature over time, titled:
"Global average temperature
Over my lifetime
(60-month running june average, NOAA NCEI time series)"
The X axis is in years, going from 1980 to a little after 2020. Each decade is marked.
The Y axis in in °C, with the "20th century average" at the bottom, up to +1°C (from the average), labelled every 0.2°C.
Certain points and periods on the graph are marked and contain descriptions of events and actions that occurred in Randall's life.

November 1982 Exxon International report predicts that fossil fuel use will raise global temperatures to about 1°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 1993-1996 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 warning “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°C, Easton, PA is 2°C hotter than normal for the fifth year in a row Today (no description) 2022 (near future) [Large X within a circle] 1982 Exxon Prediction

This is Randall Munroe in his role as a meticulous, conscientious presenter of scientific data.  The activities shown in Randall's lifeline, whether learning to ride a bike or even getting married, pale into insignificance when the consequences of unprecedented global average temperature rise are understood and accepted.  In particular, he shows that back in 1982, two years before Randall was born, Exxon wrote an internal report predicting the rise of global temperatures due to fossil fuel use, and 40 years later their prediction (shown as the X in a circle at the top-right) is being shown to be right on track. Unfortunately, that report was hidden and not seen until much later, and the world has been slow to respond with the urgency needed to reverse the damage being done to the planet.
The Wikipedia article global temperature record has some telling graphs to supplement Randall's.  This one: Global Average Temperature is the global average temperature change for the modern era, since data started being collected regularly in 1850.  This one: 2000 Year Temperature Comparison reconstructs 2000 years of temperatures.
And this comic is a small segment of another comic 1732: Earth Temperature Timeline .
The comic itself links to the referenced Exxon document about CO2 emissions .
The comic was published on the same day that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 2021 Assessment Report
One of the entries is I somehow graduate despite spending most of my time playing Mario Kart. Mario Kart is a popular video game series developed by Nintendo , and has been a recurring theme on xkcd. Hewing close to the comic's timeline, 127: The Fast and the Furious , which contains an early Mario Kart joke, was released in July 2006.
The title text refers to the fact that Exxon, being a fossil fuel company, is likely to make better predictions on fossil fuel use as they are involved in fossil fuel production themselves.
Graph of temperature over time, titled:
"Global average temperature
Over my lifetime
(60-month running june average, NOAA NCEI time series)"
The X axis is in years, going from 1980 to a little after 2020. Each decade is marked.
The Y axis in in °C, with the "20th century average" at the bottom, up to +1°C (from the average), labelled every 0.2°C.
Certain points and periods on the graph are marked and contain descriptions of events and actions that occurred in Randall's life.

November 1982 Exxon International report predicts that fossil fuel use will raise global temperatures to about 1°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 1993-1996 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 warning “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°C, Easton, PA is 2°C hotter than normal for the fifth year in a row Today (no description) 2022 (near future) [Large X within a circle] 1982 Exxon Prediction
