"A climate-literate person:
- understands the essential principles of Earth's climate system,
- knows how to assess scientifically credible information about climate,
- communicates about climate and climate change in a meaningful way, and
- is able to make informed and responsible decisions with regards to actions that may affect climate." from Climate Literacy, by the USGCRP, 2009
Interactive
The heat is on for the planet as a whole, but what has been happening where you live? This interactive graphic displays results from a global analysis of surface temperatures from 1880 to the present. The graphs and maps all show changes relative to average temperatures for the three decades from 1951 to 1980, the earliest period for which there was sufficiently good coverage for comparison. This gives a consistent view of climate change across the globe. To put these numbers in context, the NASA team estimates that the global average temperature for the 1951-1980 baseline period was about 14 °C. The analysis uses land-based temperature measurements from some 6000 monitoring stations.