Washington DC - If you've been wondering why climate change is ramping up and heatwaves and wildfires are scorching the Northern Hemisphere, look no further than CO2and its hot friends.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a recent update on it's CO2 measurements that the carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere have gone up by 50% since 1750.

NASA says that human activity, specifically burning fossil fuels, is directly to blame for the staggering rise in the greenhouse gas.

By using data and imaging from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), NASA can show you in a handy time-lapse map of the world how much CO2 levels have risen since 2002. Even in the span of just 20 years, the massive increase in warming gases paints a stark picture – especially when you look at what climate change effects have gotten worse in the same amount of time.

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Heatwaves and wildfires are breaking records from Alaska to Africa, Asia, and Europe. Flooding also intensified around the world, from Australia to the Pacific Northwest and the East Coast.

And ocean temps, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers join the ranks of dominoes toppling over each year, thanks to the rise in CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

The time for gradual action on the climate crisis is long gone. Now, a swift and sweeping change to renewable electricity is currently the only viable way to curb the amount of warming gasses in our atmosphere.

The greenhouse gases that fossil fuel companies put into the atmosphere are the root cause of climate change's increasingly hefty impacts.