...should be a safe, livable future.

To get there, we have less than a decade left to dramatically cut our climate changing emissions from burning fossil fuels. Maybe not even that long. Each and every one of us must re-create our lives, now, to preserve hope for a livable future for ourself and our children.

Scientists say the planet is reaching "tipping points" in which feedback loops will increase warming and climate change in an upward and unstoppable spiral.

It has happened many times before in earth's history...each time with disastrous consequences for nearly every living thing.

The earth is already reacting far faster and stronger to our climate changing emissions than even the worst case scenarios of scientists just a few years ago. Time is running out.

But don't just take our word for it. Listen to what the scientists are saying.

"It's not something you can adapt to. We can't let it go on another 10 years like this. We've got to do something...we cannot wait for new technologies like capturing emissions from burning coal. We have to act with what we have. We don't have much time left" Dr. James Hansen, the director of the NASA's climate research.

"The magnitude of what we're talking about greatly, greatly exceeds anything we've withstood in human history." Dr. Peter deMenocal, paleoclimatologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

"If it were only a few degrees, that would be serious, but we could adapt to it. But the danger is the warming process might be unstable and run away. We could end up like Venus, covered in clouds and with the surface temperature of 400 degrees. It could be too late if we wait until the bad effects of warming become obvious. We need action now to reduce emission of carbon dioxide." Dr. Stephen Hawking, Physicist

"Rice yields fall by 15% with every degree or warming" Dr. Peng, International Rice Research Institute

"With just a small degree of warming 'the interior of the Amazon Basin becomes essentially void of vegetation…We suggest that this threshold exists very near to current climate conditions.'" Researchers for Univ College of London and UK Meteorological Office

"With just 1.4 degree of warming the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean will become extinct. With 2 degrees, some 97 per cent of he world's reefs will." UK Meteorological Office

"Things we projected to occur in 2080 are happening in 2006. What we didn't get is how fast and how big it is, and the degree to which the biological systems would respond." Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of Harvard University's Center for Health and the Global Environment

"Right now, we're going to just burn everything up, we're going to heat the atmosphere to the temperature it was in the Cretaceous, when there were crocodiles at the poles. And then everything is going to collapse." Dr. Marty Hoffert, professor of physics at NYU

"One thing about climate change is that it's potentially geopolitically destabilizing. And we're not only more technologically able; we're more technologically able destructively as well. I think it is impossible to predict what will happen. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that by 2100 most things were destroyed." Dr. David Rind, climate scientist and 25-year climate modeler for NAS

"You've got a big boulder sitting there on this rolling hill. [Y]ou start rocking it, and you get a bunch of friends, and they start rocking it, and finally it starts moving. And then you realize, Maybe this wasn't the best idea. That's what we are doing as a society. This climate, if it starts rolling, we don't really know where it will stop." Dr. Donald Perovich, expert on interaction of solar radiation with sea ice, US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab

“We see things today that five years ago would have seemed completely impossible, extravagant, exaggerated.” Eric Rignot NASA

"The bottom line is that we have created a real mess. In order to avoid wrecking our planetary home, we have to settle down and together devise the means to achieve sustainable development while preserving our biosphere. The good news is that the same thing that has gotten us into trouble – those brains of ours – can get us out. We’re smart. We can do it." E.O. Wilson, Harvard biologist

Spending 1% of GDP now would prevent 20% drop in GDP. "We have the time and knowledge to act. But only if we act internationally, strongly and urgently…The benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting." UK's Stern Review

Our articles collected here have all been published first in other magazines and websites. Most articles link to the original publication if it exists online. If you wish, you can also browse these same articles grouped by topic using the drop-down "Topics" menu at the top of this page.

At VisualCarbon we try to transform complex and invisible climate data into a visual "aha!"

Charts can help us to see trends and solutions quickly. They also help us retain more information for longer. As top climate scientist James Hansen of NASA says: "I hope that more of the public will be willing to look at straightforward scientific graphs of data. Graphs are the most compact, honest way of presenting information, allowing insights about what the data show and helping us distinguish what is significant and what is less important."

Our goal is to get climate information out to people who need to know. Which is all of us. So if you see a chart here that you want to use, please do. You don't even need to include attribution to us.