It Is Really Getting Hotter and I Have Proof

This blog post explains a short analysis I did about the global temperature trends and temperature changes in Stockholm.

My goal was to create a simple visualization and draw insights on the similarities between global temperature trends and Stockholm’s temperature trends. I followed the following steps:

• Wrote an SQL query to extract the temperature data and export if as a csv file.
• I created a line chart using tableau.
• Draw insights.

SQL Query

The following SQL query extracts the global average temperature, as well as the average temperature for Stockholm for years where they have corresponding values. It also eliminates rows where the average temperature is null.

SELECT city_data.year, city_data.avg_temp as city_temp, global_data_avg.temp as global_temp
FROM city_data, global_data
WHERE city_data.year = global_data.year AND city_data.avg_temp is not NULL AND city_data.city = "Stockholm";

How I designed my chart on tableau

After getting the result of my SQL query, I downloaded the data as a CSV file. I opened my CSV as a text file in tableau and created a line chart which shows the trends in both Global temperature and Stockholm’s temperature. I plotted a 7-year moving average rather than the yearly average in order to smooth out the line which made it easy for me to observe and draw insights.

I designed my chart by moving the Year field to the column pane and the temperature field to the row pane. I duplicated the temperature field and changed it to a dual axis and then synchronized it. I also dragged the measure name field to the color mark type. See the line chart below;

Line chart of global avg temp vs Stockholm avg temp

Insights and Recommendations

Insights:

a. On the average, Stockholm’s average temperature is cooler than the global average temperature and this has been very consistent over the years.

b. Stockholm’s average temperature is directly proportional to the global average temperature as it gets a little hotter when the global average temperature gets hotter, and cooler when the global average temperature gets a bit cooler.

c. In the earlier years, there was a constant fluctuation in the global average temperature. From 1900, the global temperature started getting hotter though the changes were not as much as the earlier years. I believe it is safe to say over the last hundred years, the world is getting hotter and this has been consistent.

d. The gap between the global average temperature and Stockholm’s average temperature was a pretty large gap between 1757–1762 when compared to the years going forward.

Recommendations on how to prevent Global Warming:

1. Moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energies like solar, wind, biomass and geothermal.
2. Use of more efficient devices like innovative shower systems, LED light bulb e.t.c
3. Reduce CO2(carbon dioxide) emissions by doing the following;

• Promoting public transportation
• promoting carpooling and
• promoting electric and hydrogen mobility.

4. It is advisable to build new low energy buildings and to renovate existing buildings.

5. To prioritize making agriculture greener, stop massive deforestation and make more use of natural resources.

6. Recycling wastes should be the only option.

In conclusion, the fact that over the last hundred years, the world is getting hotter and this has been consistent is alarming and should make us reflect on how important the problem of global warming is, and how important it is to plan interventions that can slow this trend.

Thank you for reading.