The orange graph shows 120 years of Earth's ocean levels from tide gauge records (and 3 year average) embroidered on silk and emerging from an oil can. Over the past century, the average height of the sea has risen more consistently, less than a centimeter every year, but those small additions add up. Today, sea level is 5 to 8 inches (13-20 centimeters) higher on average than it was in 1900. That's a pretty big change: for the previous 2,000 years, sea level hadn't changed much at all. The rate of sea level rise has also increased over time. Between 1900 and 1990 studies show that sea level rose between 1.2 millimeters and 1.7 millimeters per year on average. By 2000, that rate had increased to about 3.2 millimeters per year and the rate in 2016 is estimated at 3.4 millimeters per year. Sea level is expected to rise even more quickly by the end of the century. For more info about global mean sea level, go to NASA and Copernicus or National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The red graph shows atmospheric warming in the Mediterranean Basin (blue) and global (green) with respect to the pre-industrial period 1880-1899. (Annual mean temperature anomalies with and without smoothing.) In the Mediterranean region, average annual temperatures are now 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.52 degrees F) higher than during the period 1880-1899, well above the current global warming trends. Link to more info at the UN Environment Programme.

The green graph shows 800,000 years of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere embroidered on silk and emerging from an oil can. Most of the emissions of human-caused (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases come primarily from burning fossil fuels: coal, hydrocarbon gas liquids, natural gas, and petroleum. Scientists measure the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere using satellites and other instruments, collecting samples of air from specific places. The levels of greenhouse gases that existed in the past are found in ancient air bubbles trapped deep in the ice of Greenland and Antarctica. For more info about CO2, look at NASA and CO2Earth.

Two of the graphs started off in a pair of 9" x 9" x 3" wooden boxes which I made for a Textile Study Group of NY show, pictured below. Click on the image for more information and images.