CO₂ and Temperature 1850-2019

(c) 2020 by Barton Paul Levenson

It's been eleven years since I last examined the correlation between airborne carbon dioxide and temperature, so here's the data again. Temperature is from the Hadley Centre Climatic Research Unit (CRU). CO₂ data is from the Law Dome ice cores for 1850-1958, and Mauna Loa for 1959-2019.

Year	Anom	CO2
1850	-0.239	284.7
1851	-0.004	284.9
1852	-0.137	285.0
1853	-0.326	285.1
1854	-0.125	285.3
1855	-0.522	285.4
1856	-0.587	285.6
1857	-0.580	285.7
1858	-0.555	285.9
1859	-0.193	286.1
1860	-0.649	286.2
1861	-0.516	286.4
1862	-0.756	286.5
1863	-0.275	286.6
1864	-0.825	286.8
1865	-0.453	286.9
1866	-0.440	287.0
1867	-0.603	287.1
1868	-0.424	287.2
1869	-0.393	287.4
1870	-0.549	287.5
1871	-0.659	287.7
1872	-0.355	287.9
1873	-0.384	288.1
1874	-0.483	288.4
1875	-0.832	288.7
1876	-0.497	289.0
1877	-0.252	289.4
1878	-0.023	289.8
1879	-0.553	290.2
1880	-0.363	290.7
1881	-0.440	291.2
1882	-0.336	291.7
1883	-0.617	292.1
1884	-0.724	292.6
1885	-0.693	293.0
1886	-0.532	293.3
1887	-0.578	293.6
1888	-0.594	293.8
1889	-0.276	294.0
1890	-0.446	294.2
1891	-0.536	294.3
1892	-0.633	294.5
1893	-0.708	294.6
1894	-0.484	294.7
1895	-0.574	294.8
1896	-0.395	294.9
1897	-0.310	295.0
1898	-0.396	295.2
1899	-0.329	295.5
1900	-0.194	295.8
1901	-0.157	296.1
1902	-0.398	296.5
1903	-0.432	296.8
1904	-0.533	297.2
1905	-0.405	297.6
1906	-0.184	298.1
1907	-0.606	298.5
1908	-0.457	298.9
1909	-0.423	299.3
1910	-0.333	299.7
1911	-0.415	300.1
1912	-0.434	300.4
1913	-0.306	300.8
1914	-0.063	301.1
1915	-0.060	301.4
1916	-0.346	301.7
1917	-0.652	302.1
1918	-0.417	302.4
1919	-0.275	302.7
1920	-0.262	303.0
1921	-0.099	303.4
1922	-0.248	303.8
1923	-0.263	304.1
1924	-0.314	304.5
1925	-0.212	305.0
1926	-0.064	305.4
1927	-0.223	305.8
1928	-0.146	306.3
1929	-0.469	306.8
1930	-0.108	307.2
1931	-0.072	307.7
1932	-0.076	308.2
1933	-0.317	308.6
1934	-0.025	309.0
1935	-0.163	309.4
1936	-0.117	309.8
1937	-0.032	310.0
1938	0.152	310.2
1939	-0.002	310.3
1940	-0.041	310.4
1941	-0.029	310.4
1942	-0.046	310.3
1943	0.010	310.2
1944	0.107	310.1
1945	-0.119	310.1
1946	-0.078	310.1
1947	-0.005	310.2
1948	0.000	310.3
1949	-0.108	310.5
1950	-0.301	310.7
1951	-0.107	311.1
1952	-0.063	311.5
1953	0.129	311.9
1954	-0.145	312.4
1955	-0.192	313.0
1956	-0.426	313.6
1957	-0.078	314.2
1958	0.041	314.9
1959	0.019	315.97
1960	-0.068	316.91
1961	0.039	317.64
1962	0.027	318.45
1963	0.024	318.99
1964	-0.283	319.62
1965	-0.233	320.04
1966	-0.132	321.38
1967	-0.090	322.16
1968	-0.207	323.04
1969	-0.114	324.62
1970	-0.054	325.68
1971	-0.202	326.32
1972	-0.225	327.45
1973	0.138	329.68
1974	-0.278	330.18
1975	-0.065	331.11
1976	-0.354	332.04
1977	0.082	333.83
1978	-0.047	335.40
1979	0.039	336.84
1980	0.125	338.75
1981	0.300	340.11
1982	-0.020	341.45
1983	0.317	343.05
1984	-0.047	344.65
1985	-0.042	346.12
1986	0.106	347.42
1987	0.264	349.19
1988	0.361	351.57
1989	0.234	353.12
1990	0.490	354.39
1991	0.380	355.61
1992	0.094	356.45
1993	0.177	357.10
1994	0.331	358.83
1995	0.570	360.82
1996	0.228	362.61
1997	0.490	363.73
1998	0.841	366.70
1999	0.556	368.38
2000	0.474	369.55
2001	0.668	371.14
2002	0.762	373.28
2003	0.758	375.80
2004	0.660	377.52
2005	0.863	379.80
2006	0.805	381.90
2007	0.895	383.79
2008	0.682	385.60
2009	0.731	387.43
2010	0.914	389.90
2011	0.707	391.65
2012	0.761	393.85
2013	0.826	396.52
2014	0.866	398.65
2015	1.151	400.83
2016	1.292	404.24
2017	1.120	406.55
2018	0.941	408.52
2019	1.158	411.44

Here's CO₂ (on the vertical or Y axis) graphed against temperature anomaly (on the horizontal or X axis):

The correlation (Pearson's r) between the two is 0.9213, so the coefficient of determination is r² = 0.8488. With this sample size, this correlation is significant at the level p < 6.7 x 10^-170.

Here's how temperature has risen with time:

Anyone think there's no global warming? Or that it's not being driven by carbon dioxide? If so, there's a pseudoscience just for you!