Animation shows how global warming is spiraling out of control

A new graphic boils down 166 years of data into a stunning 15-second animation that shows just how quickly global warming is spiraling out of control.

Ed Hawkins, a British climate scientist from the University of Reading, created the graphic to illustrate how global average temperature has changed since 1850.

The animation initially shows tight spirals closer to the center of the image, before the circle expands slowly outward beginning in the 1940s, then rapidly beginning in the 1990s.

"The pace of change is immediately obvious, especially over the past few decades," Hawkins wrote on his blog, the Climate Lab Book.

The animation uses data from the Hadley Centre of the United Kingdom's Met Office to show average monthly global temperature departures compared to a baseline of pre-industrial temperatures from 1850 to 1900. It displays the changes in Celsius.

The burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas over the past 150 years has released carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere, causing global air and sea temperatures to rise to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability.

Each of the past two years set a new record for the warmest on record, and 2016 is on pace to do the same.

The Paris Agreement, a non-binding treaty approved in December after years of U.N. climate negotiations, aims to slow the rise of greenhouse gases blamed for putting Earth on a dangerous warming path. The deal sets a target of limiting global warming by 2100 to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F), as compared to pre-industrial levels.

The new animation clearly shows the relationship between current global temperatures and that target, Hawkins said.