The year 2016 was Earth’s hottest year on record — which was true in 2014 and 2015 as well, so it’s been in the news repeatedly. (Most recently, 2017 was the third-hottest.) This is a somewhat complicated dataset because different agencies measure in slightly different ways, but the trends and conclusions are consistent.
Explore these three different ways of visualizing this data:
- How 2016 Became Earth’s Hottest Year on Record (NYT)
- No Hoax: 2016 Was the Hottest Year on Record (Bloomberg)
- A Timeline of Earth’s Average Temperature (xkcd)
Which of the three visualizations about Earth’s record temperature do you consider most effective, and why? Which one do you think Edward Tufte would like best, based on his design principles?