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Link: xkcd’s Earth Temperature Timeline

Robert Kosara / September 12, 2016

Link: xkcd’s Earth Temperature Timeline

Randall Munroe has done it again. His latest xkcd comic is an enormous timeline of the Earth’s temperature, showing the enormously long time we have temperature estimates for, and how little it has changed until very, very recently.

Munroe has an incredible talent for creating simple and fun explanations for complex topics. I highly recommend his book, Thing Explainer.

The comic is a great example of not constraining yourself to some predefined format, but instead finding the right frame for what you’re trying to show. In this case, the image is about 750px wide and almost 15,000px high: an aspect ratio of 20:1.

And since Munroe encourages embedding and hot linking, here’s the whole thing in all its glory:

Filed Under: Links

Robert Kosara is Senior Research Scientist at Tableau Software, and formerly Associate Professor of Computer Science. His research focus is the communication of data using visualization. In addition to blogging, Robert also runs and tweets. Read More…

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Comments

  1. 3danim8 (aka Ken Black) says

    September 12, 2016 at 11:42 pm

    Robert,

    Thank you so much for this! I cannot believe my good luck. It is 2:40 am EST and I’m currently reviewing my son’s paper on the topic of ….. Global Warming! Da Da! You have helped me more than you can imagine. What an amazing piece of science and art, wrapped up in a visual masterpiece. I love it.

    Thanks,

    Ken

    Reply
  2. Tom Shanley says

    September 13, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    2 other aspects of this great graphic worth noting:

    The use of lengthy scrolling to emphasise the scale, much like this solar system graphic.
    http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html. sometimes, the scale of time and space is under represented.

    The perfect subtle riposte to deniers delivered in the byline.

    T

    Reply

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