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The best climate change visualizations of 2016

GIFs and spirals and time lapses, oh my!

A GIF showing world temperatures spiraling upward over time between 1850 and 2016.
Ed Hawkins

Here at Vox, we’re big fans of clever graphics and visualizations that make climate change, which can sometimes seem abstract and impenetrably complex, easier to grasp. We’ve highlighted several this year (see here, here, and here), more than one of them from University of Reading climate scientist Ed Hawkins, who seems to have a real eye for these things.

Helpfully, Hawkins has rounded up his own favorite climate visualizations from the year in one place — graphics showing the rise in temperatures, the rise in CO2 concentrations, the melting of Arctic ice, and more.

So without further ado, here are the coolest, most visually arresting ways of understanding just how screwed we are. Thanks, 2016.