--- title: Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet description: A startling NASA animation lets you see how carbon emissions shroud the world. canonical: https://time.com/6291042/nasa-video-carbon-emissions/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-29T15:04:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T16:05:36.352Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet og:description: A startling NASA animation lets you see how carbon emissions shroud the world. og:url: https://time.com/6291042/nasa-video-carbon-emissions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd0e67ec7ea42872/698a3e41096a94d1bb6ade45/Smokestacks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5404 og:image:height: 3040 og:image:alt: Factory at sunset in Cleveland, Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet twitter:description: A startling NASA animation lets you see how carbon emissions shroud the world. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd0e67ec7ea42872/698a3e41096a94d1bb6ade45/Smokestacks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 02:32 video:published: 2023-06-29 section: climate topics: carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuels, NASA visualization, atmospheric circulation, Northern Hemisphere emissions, carbon sinks, plant respiration, climate change genre: explainer, data visualization tones: informative, alarming, measured, striking emotions: concern (medium), curiosity (medium), awe (low) sentiment: negative audience: general public, climate-interested viewers, science enthusiasts, students organizations: NASA, TIME content_suitability: disasters [00:00-00:12]; health controversy [02:15-02:32] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable --- # Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=97c5096e-124a-4d76-bd53-aa0a832f9efe&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet [Watch (HLS stream): Watch One Year Of Carbon Emissions Take Over The Planet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cBbZGKG0.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2023-06-29. It’s hard to miss something that weighs 37 billion tons—especially when it’s all around us. Thirty-seven billion tons is the amount of fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere every year. We see the damage it does everywhere—from heat waves to floods to droughts to wildfires and more. But the CO2 itself? Entirely invisible. Until now._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary NASA has released a visualization showing human-produced carbon dioxide circulating through the atmosphere over the full year 2021, built from weather satellite observations and ground monitoring of greenhouse gas emitters. The video shows how the Northern Hemisphere dominates emissions and how the gas spreads southward over the months. It also covers the role of plant life and of land and oceans as carbon sinks, and warns that emissions will continue until fossil fuel use ends. ## Key points - Fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year is about 37 billion tons. (00:00) - The visualization draws on data from weather satellites and earth-based monitoring of known greenhouse gas emitters, especially industrial areas in the developed world. (00:22) - The Northern Hemisphere plays an outsized role in the global spread of greenhouse gases compared to the less blameworthy Southern Hemisphere. (00:43) - The CO2 does not reach the Southern Hemisphere in truly significant amounts until June. (01:00) - The equator acts as an atmospheric burner, with hot air rising and slowly circulating north to south. (01:06) - Australia, Africa and South America flicker between green and gray, reflecting plant life absorbing CO2 by day and releasing it at night. (01:29) - About half of human emissions are taken up by the land and oceans, which act as carbon sinks. (01:54) - At least another 37 billion tons of emissions are expected this year and next, until humans break the fossil-fuel habit. (02:15) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:18] Introducing the invisible carbon problem. The narration sets up the scale of annual fossil-fuel carbon emissions and notes the gas is normally invisible. - [00:18 to 00:43] NASA's visualization and its data sources. The video is introduced as a NASA release showing 2021 CO2 circulation, based on satellite and ground monitoring data. - [00:43 to 01:06] Northern Hemisphere dominance and equatorial circulation. The narration explains how the Northern Hemisphere drives emissions and how the equator slows the spread of CO2 southward. - [01:06 to 01:52] Southern Hemisphere and plant life cycles. The Southern Hemisphere is eventually covered by emissions, while vegetation shows up as a daily cycle of absorption and release. - [01:52 to 02:32] Carbon sinks and the outlook ahead. The narration notes that land and oceans absorb about half of emissions, then warns that emissions will continue until fossil fuel use stops. ## Key quotes - [00:00] narrator: "It's hard to miss something that weighs 37 billion tons." - [01:06] narrator: "the equator operates as an atmospheric burner with hot air rising from the earth midline" - [01:54] narrator: "not all of the CO2 tonnage humans pour into the sky, stays there" - [02:15] narrator: "The bad news is that there's at least another thirty seven billion tons coming this year and next year" ## Questions this video answers - How much fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide do humans release each year? [00:00] - What data was used to create the NASA visualization of CO2 circulation? [00:22] - Why does the Northern Hemisphere contribute more to the spread of greenhouse gases? [00:43] - Why does it take until June for carbon dioxide to cover the Southern Hemisphere? [01:00] - How do land and oceans affect the amount of CO2 remaining in the atmosphere? [01:52] - What will happen to the planet if humans do not stop their fossil-fuel habit? [02:15] ## Content suitability - disasters [00:00-00:12]: Mentions heat waves, floods, droughts and wildfires as damage linked to emissions, mainly in the description. - health controversy [02:15-02:32]: Warns of continued harm from emissions, framed as a climate consequence rather than a health claim. Jun 29, 2023 3:04 PM UTC It’s hard to miss something that weighs 37 billion tons—especially when it’s all around us. Thirty-seven billion tons is the amount of fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere every year. We see the damage it does everywhere—from heat waves to floods to droughts to wildfires and more. But the CO2 itself? Entirely invisible. Until now.  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jun 29, 2023 3:04 PM UTC It’s hard to miss something that weighs 37 billion tons—especially when it’s all around us. Thirty-seven billion tons [is the amount](https://www.iea.org/news/global-co2-emissions-rose-less-than-initially-feared-in-2022-as-clean-energy-growth-offset-much-of-the-impact-of-greater-coal-and-oil-use) of fossil-fuel-related [carbon dioxide](https://time.com/6213441/carbon-emissions-cost/) humans release into the atmosphere every year. We see the damage it does everywhere—from heat waves to floods to droughts to wildfires and more. But the CO2 itself? Entirely invisible. Until now. In a striking new video, [NASA has](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5110#section%5Fcredits) made visible the production—and, in some cases, absorption—of human-produced carbon dioxide for the entirety of the year 2021\. Over that period, the CO2 in the atmosphere [rose by 2.13 parts per million](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide#:~:text=The%20increase%20between%202021%20and,dioxide%20in%202022%20was%20418.56.) (PPM), marking the eleventh year in a row in which the increase exceeded 2 PPM. The most dramatic takeaway from the video is the [outsized role the northern hemisphere plays](https://time.com/6137289/climate-change-responsibility/) in the global spread of [greenhouse gasses](https://time.com/6213489/remove-carbon-emissions-from-air/), compared to the far less blameworthy south. Space agency scientists drew the data for their video partly from observations made by weather satellites, including NASA’s [GOES-17](https://www.goes-r.gov/multimedia/dataAndImageryImagesGoes-17.html), the European Union’s [Meteosat](https://www.eumetsat.int/our-satellites/meteosat-series), and Japan’s [GMS](https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gms/index.html). Other information came from Earth-based monitoring of known greenhouse gas emitters—industrial areas in the developed world in particular, but also smaller contributions made by, say, the burning of crop waste in Africa. This data was fed into NASA’s [Goddard Earth Observing System](https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/GEOS%5Fsystems/) (GEOS), a computer-modeling tool that can turn raw information into eye-popping imagery—and in this case GEOS worked stunningly. The model assigned four colors to the video it produced: orange represents fossil fuel emissions, red represents burning biomass, green represents land ecosystems, and blue represents the ocean. **Read more:** [_The Selfish Case for Climate Justice_](https://time.com/6225469/climate-justice-inequity-self-interest/) The video unspools over the course of the year and it is not until June that [the south](https://time.com/6271719/world-bank-imf-climate-change-finance/) is truly shrouded in the north’s emissions. It takes that long partly because the equator operates as sort of an atmospheric berm, with hot air rising from the earth’s midline slowing north-south circulation. Ultimately, however, those billions of tons of carbon dioxide blow past this natural stop sign and cover the south as badly as the north. For the first half of the year, before they’re obscured by CO2, Australia, Africa, and South America appear to flicker on and off from green to a neutral gray. That represents plant life absorbing carbon dioxide during the day and releasing it in a sort of vegetable respiration at night. The crop fires in Africa are visible too, and while these are relatively small contributors of CO2, they build up over time, because if the land is not fully replanted each season, it can alter the overall ecosystem’s ability to sequester atmospheric carbon. If there is any good news in both the data and the video, it’s that not all of the CO2 tonnage humans pour into the air _stays_ in the air. About half of the emissions are taken up by the land and the oceans, which act as carbon sinks, entraining the greenhouse gas and preventing it from accelerating [climate change](https://time.com/section/climate/) even further. The bad news is that there’s at least another 37 billion tons coming this year—and next year and the year after that. Until humans break their fossil-fuel habit, the planet will continue to choke on the results. **Read more:** [_There is No Climate Justice Without Racial Justice_](https://time.com/6017907/climate-emergency-racial-justice/) ## Transcript [00:00] It's hard to miss something that weighs 37 billion tons. [00:04] That's the amount of fossil fuel related. [00:08] Carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere every year. [00:12] The gas is entirely invisible until now [00:18] In a striking. [00:18] New video, NASA has revealed the release and circulation [00:22] of human produce carbon dioxide for the entirety of the Year. [00:26] 2021, scientists Drew their data partly from observations [00:32] made by weather satellites and partly by earth-based. [00:36] Monitoring of known greenhouse gas, emitters industrial [00:41] areas in the developed World in particular. [00:43] The most dramatic take away from the outsized role. [00:48] The Northern Hemisphere plays in the global spread of greenhouse [00:52] gases. Compared to the far less blameworthy South video, [00:57] unspools over the course of the year. [01:00] And it's not until June that the south is truly shrouded in [01:04] the north city missions. [01:06] Takes that long partly because the equator operates as an atmospheric [01:11] burner with hot air rising from the earth midline slowly north-south [01:17] circulation. Ultimately however, those billions of tons of carbon [01:21] dioxide blow past is natural stop sign and cover this house [01:26] as badly as the North. [01:29] In the first half of the year before they are obscured by CO2 [01:32] Australia Africa and South America appear to flicker on and off [01:37] from green to a neutral gray. [01:40] That represents plant life absorbing carbon dioxide during [01:44] the day and release unit in a sort of vegetable respiration [01:49] at night. [01:52] If there is any good news in, [01:54] both the data and the video, it's that not all of the CO2 tonnage [01:59] humans pour into the sky, stays there about half of the emissions [02:04] are taken by the land and the oceans, [02:06] which act, as carbon sinks in training greenhouse-gas [02:10] in preventing it from accelerating climate change, [02:13] even further. [02:15] The bad news is that there's at least another thirty seven [02:18] billion tons coming this year and next year, [02:21] and the year after that until humans break their fossil-fuel [02:26] habit. 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