Global warming visualized using wooden graphs

Global warming between 1990 and 2021 visualized using wooden graphs.

One reason we are not acting more quickly to mitigate global warming may be that we do not see the effects in our immediate environment.

However, with more frequent extreme weather, wildfires and storms, I think more people are realizing the effects of climate change.

To get a visual idea of how fast things are going, I created a three-dimensional graph out of wood showing the annual temperature between 1990 and 2021.

Individual annual temperature graphs of years 1990–2021 stacked side by side shows a slight trend upward in temperature.

First, I downloaded temperature data from Berkeley Earth’s full daily TAVG dataset. Using Python and Matplotlib, I created 2D graphs of the daily temperature changes between January and December for each year.

I then exported the graphs to Adobe Illustrator, added year labels, and converted the files to a format that the laser cutter could understand. Finally, I laser cut the pieces using Duron material and 3D printed a holder.

I then put all the pieces together side by side in the 3D printed holder. The cool thing about this is that you can pull any year out of the structure and view a single year at a time.

Each year is its separate slice, allowing you to pull out any year for further investigation.

All in all, it was a fun project to learn more about data visualization, and taking data from the computer into the real world.

I hope this inspires you to create your own forms of data visualizations!

Thank you for reading!