In charts: As temperatures rise, here is the state of climate change in the world

Protesters carry signs during the Peoples Climate March at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts - RTS14HJJ

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016 the hottest year on record since 1880. Even worse is the fact that 16 years of the 21st century rank among the 17 warmest in the past 137 years.

The global average temperature across land and water surfaces in 2016 was 58.69°F (14.84°C), 1.69°F above the 20th century average of 57.0°F.

Despite such worrying evidence, climate change skeptics still want to depend heavily on fossil fuels to meet growing energy demands.

US President Donald Trump is firm that the Paris climate agreement is 'not a good deal' for America and wants to withdraw from it.

While the world is planning to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, US under Trump has rolled-back incentives for the emerging renewable industry. Also, restrictions on the coal industry have been eased to create more mining jobs.

The below chart clearly illustrates that our climate is in fact changing.

Statista

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt

The United States and Britain are the main barriers when it comes to tackling climate change, according to a survey by YouGov. The survey, spanning four continents and 15 countries, found that both the US and British public trail other countries in terms of general climate change concerns as well as formulating strategies to curb emissions.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

Developed countries made their riches by exploiting cheap fossil fuel and now preach developing countries to refrain from doing so.

The issue is that they don't follow what they preach and remain deniers of man-made climate change.

Statista

Humans and climate change

According to Ipsos' Global Trends Survey among roughly 16,000 adults from 20 countries, a majority now believe that human activity has a significant impact on climate change. 

It was observed that people from developed countries showed the highest degree of doubt. US showed the highest degree of doubt, with only 54 percent agreeing that humans are responsible for the changing climate.

Statista

COP21 agreement

The Paris Agreement is the first universal and legally binding agreement on climate change involving every country in the world.

Over 160 countries signed the deal in April 2016 at a special event in New York, with the number of endorsers having since risen to 193, of which 97  ratified the paper by November 2016.

The rise in global average temperatures is set to be limited to 1.5C - which is half a degree more it needs to be kept down than the 2C target that had been discussed previously.

To reach this goal carbon emissions need to be capped.

Among the top global emitters China, US and India have ratified the agreement. After coming to power, US President Donald Trump has said on multiple occasions that US will exit the deal. Statista

Wildlife in peril

According to a report released by the World Wildlife Fund, half the planets's wildlife population has vanished since 1970.

The vast majority of this is due to human activity with exploitation and habitat degradation/loss being the primary culprits.

As bad as human activity has been on land, the world's waterways have suffered devastating losses with freshwater wildlife populations plunging 76 percent.

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