The greenhouse effect is proven in a lab.
American amateur scientist Eunice Foote and British physicist John Tyndall show that CO₂ lets sunlight through but traps the heat Earth radiates back out, like a blanket.
CO₂ 285 ppm+0.00 °C
The Record · 1856–2026
A Warming
Record
A heating world, end to end — and the six lives filming inside it.
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1856
1896
02 / 371896
The worldObservation
Coal is linked to global warming.
Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius realizes that doubling CO₂ would warm the planet by several degrees and names industrial coal burning as a source — though he assumed it would take thousands of years to take effect.
CO₂ 295 ppm−0.05 °C
1938
03 / 371938
The worldObservation
The first evidence of global warming.
Guy Callendar, a British steam engineer studying climate as a hobby, compiles weather-station records showing the world has measurably warmed over 50 years in step with rising CO₂ — and is widely doubted at the time.
CO₂ 305 ppm+0.00 °C
1958
04 / 371958
The worldObservation
The Keeling Curve begins.
American geochemist Charles Keeling starts measuring CO₂ continuously atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii, turning “CO₂ is probably rising” into an undeniable, still-climbing dataset.
CO₂ 315 ppm+0.10 °C
1965
05 / 371965
The worldDenial & Delay
Government and industry are warned.
A White House task force commissioned by President Johnson reports that by the year 2000, rising CO₂ “could be deleterious from the point of view of human beings.” Its findings are shared with fossil-fuel leaders at the American Petroleum Institute's annual meeting that same year.
CO₂ 320 ppm+0.10 °C
1968
06 / 371968–1988
Their New YorkDenial & Delay
Fossil-fuel companies knowingly double down.
Exxon, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute commission internal studies that confirm the threat of global warming. Yet in 1980, API lobbies to triple world coal production.
CO₂ 345 ppm+0.25 °C
1991
07 / 371991
The worldDenial & Delay
“Reposition global warming as theory (not fact).”
A direct quote describing the strategy behind a deception campaign coal and utility companies launch through ads targeting “older, less-educated males who are not typically information seekers” and “younger, lower-income women” in areas powered by coal.
CO₂ 356 ppm+0.40 °C
1995
08 / 37March 1995
The worldPolicy
The first UN climate conference convenes in Berlin.
Chaired by German environment minister Angela Merkel, the inaugural Conference of the Parties establishes that developed nations' emissions efforts are inadequate and that binding targets must be negotiated — the Berlin Mandate.
CO₂ 361 ppm+0.42 °C
1997
09 / 371997
The worldPolicy
The Kyoto Protocol.
The first treaty with binding emissions targets, built around “common but differentiated responsibilities” between industrialized and developing nations, is rejected by the US — exposing the inequality inherent to the climate crisis.
CO₂ 363 ppm+0.48 °C
2012
10 / 37October 29, 2012
Their New YorkImpact
Hurricane Sandy hits New York.
A 14-foot storm surge floods the subway, kills dozens, and causes roughly $60 billion in economic damage.
CO₂ 394 ppm+0.85 °C
2015
11 / 37December 12, 2015
The worldPolicy
The Paris Agreement.
195 countries sign, agreeing to cap warming at 1.5°C — a major win for the climate movement. President Donald Trump later moves to withdraw the US during both of his terms.
CO₂ 401 ppm+0.95 °C
2018
12 / 37August 2018
Their New YorkUprising
Greta Thunberg's first school strike.
The 15-year-old Swedish student sits in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks; she and fellow strikers coin #FridaysForFuture, inspiring a global movement.
CO₂ 408 ppm+1.02 °C
2018
13 / 37October 2018
The worldObservation
The IPCC narrows in on 1.5°C.
A special report identifies 1.5°C as the threshold beyond which climate impacts sharply worsen, and finds that staying below it requires cutting emissions 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.
CO₂ 408 ppm+1.02 °C
2019
14 / 37September 20, 2019
Their New YorkUprising
Thunberg leads NYC climate action.
After sailing across the Atlantic on an emissions-free racing yacht to avoid the carbon footprint of flying, Thunberg leads tens of thousands of protesters in a march through Manhattan. A few days later, at the UN Climate Action Summit, Thunberg confronts world leaders with her famous “How dare you” speech.
CO₂ 411 ppm+1.05 °C
2021
15 / 37September 1, 2021
Their New YorkImpact
Hurricane Ida floods New York.
Record rainfall drowns more than a dozen people in illegal basement apartments, shifting the city's focus from coastal storm surge to inland flash flooding and housing inequality.
CO₂ 416 ppm+1.10 °C
2022
16 / 37August 2022
The worldPolicy
The US Inflation Reduction Act.
Roughly $370 billion in clean-energy incentives, signed by President Joe Biden, signals a strategic shift from taxing carbon to subsidizing alternatives.
CO₂ 418 ppm+1.15 °C
2022
17 / 37November 2022
The worldPolicy
COP27 agrees to a loss-and-damage fund.
Wealthy nations finally accept compensating poorer countries for climate damage — a demand 30 years in the making.
CO₂ 419 ppm+1.15 °C
2023
18 / 37June 2023
Their New YorkImpact
Wildfire smoke turns New York skies orange.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires gives NYC one of the worst air-quality days in the city's recorded history, making climate impacts visible and physical to millions at once.
CO₂ 421 ppm+1.35 °C
2023
19 / 37August 2023
Generation OrangeUprising
Teens defeat Montana — and Generation Orange begins.
After 16 young Montanans sue their state, its Supreme Court affirms their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. Later that month, filmmaker Kate Coiro begins attending Fridays for Future NYC meetings — at first without a camera — to build trust with the six adolescent activists who become the film's characters.
CO₂ 421 ppm+1.38 °CGeneration Orange
2023
20 / 37September 2023
Generation OrangeUprising
The March to End Fossil Fuels.
FFF NYC and partner organizations lead 75,000 people through Manhattan ahead of the UN summit — generally described as the largest US climate demonstration since 2019.
CO₂ 421 ppm+1.40 °C
2023
21 / 37December 2023
Generation OrangePolicy
Emma and Keanu attend COP28 in Dubai.
The first UN climate conference whose official assessment of global progress explicitly calls for an end to fossil fuels.
CO₂ 422 ppm+1.45 °CGeneration Orange
2024
22 / 372024
The worldImpact
The first calendar year above 1.5°C.
A single year isn't the same as breaching the Paris Agreement — which is measured over decades — but 2024 is the warmest year ever recorded on Earth.
CO₂ 424 ppm+1.55 °C
2024
23 / 37April 19, 2024
Generation OrangeUprising
Fridays for Future NYC marches on Brooklyn Bridge.
Generation Orange follows student organizers leading a school walkout timed just before NYC Climate Week, marching from Foley Square in Manhattan to Borough Hall in Brooklyn to demand an end to fossil fuel production.
CO₂ 425 ppm+1.55 °CGeneration Orange
2024
24 / 37June 2024
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange
Emma, Keanu and Noa graduate high school.
CO₂ 425 ppm+1.55 °CGeneration Orange
2024
25 / 37December 2024
Generation OrangePolicy
New York enacts the Climate Change Superfund Act.
After months of lobbying by FFF NYC and other groups, Governor Kathy Hochul signs a law requiring large fossil-fuel companies to pay $3 billion a year for 25 years into a climate-adaptation fund — and it is immediately challenged in court.
CO₂ 425 ppm+1.55 °C
2025
26 / 37January 5, 2025
Their New YorkPolicy
Congestion pricing starts in Manhattan.
The program charges drivers to enter lower Manhattan, reducing traffic, improving air quality, and funding transit — the first congestion charge in the United States.
CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °C
2025
27 / 37January 20, 2025
The worldPolicy
Day-one executive orders reverse federal climate policy.
President Trump declares a national energy emergency; orders government agencies to immediately stop disbursing funds for clean energy; revokes the US International Climate Finance Plan; halts all new offshore wind leasing across the Outer Continental Shelf; and initiates the nation's second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. During the next two years of his term, Trump systematically reopens vast amounts of public land to oil and gas extraction, despite the US being the largest historic emitter of CO₂ worldwide.
CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °C
2025
28 / 37Spring 2025
The worldDenial & Delay
The federal government stops producing climate science.
Tens of thousands of federal workers are dismissed from agencies including EPA, NOAA, the National Science Foundation and the Forest Service; nearly 400 scientists are released from the National Climate Assessment, the quadrennial report Congress mandates; and the EPA eliminates its Office of Research and Development entirely.
CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °C
2025
29 / 37June 2025
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange
Helen graduates high school.
CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration Orange
2025
30 / 37December 19, 2025
Generation OrangePolicy
New York repeals the “100-foot rule.”
Governor Hochul signs legislation ending a 40-year-old requirement that all utility ratepayers subsidize the first 100 feet of gas line for new hookups, shifting that cost onto the applicant — a central pillar of the NY HEAT Act that FFF NYC lobbied for in Albany.
CO₂ 428 ppm+1.50 °C
2026
31 / 37January 27, 2026
The worldPolicy
The US withdraws from the Paris Agreement.
The first of many climate policy changes announced during Donald Trump's second presidential term takes one year to actually enact. The Trump administration also announces it will leave the underlying 1992 UNFCCC treaty, removing the US from international climate negotiations entirely.
CO₂ 429 ppm+1.50 °C
2026
32 / 37June 2026
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange
Luca graduates high school.
CO₂ 429 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration Orange
2026
33 / 37July 2026
Generation OrangeImpact
Wildfire smoke returns to New York skies.
Canadian wildfire smoke again obscures the city skyline — and marks the end of production for Generation Orange.
CO₂ 429 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration Orange
2026
34 / 37Late 2026 — planned
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange
Generation Orange enters the festival circuit.
With production wrapped, the finished film goes out to festivals — the first chance for audiences beyond the crew to sit with these six lives.
CO₂ 430 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration OrangeProjected
2027
35 / 372027 — planned
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange
The film premieres.
A first public run — screenings where the characters, now a year or two older, can watch their younger selves argue with a warming world.
CO₂ 432 ppm+1.51 °CGeneration OrangeProjected
2028
36 / 372027–2028 — planned
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange
A van-based screening tour.
The plan: load the film into a van and bring it to the places the story is about — community screenings, schools, and towns living the same smoke-and-heat summers.
CO₂ 434 ppm+1.52 °CGeneration OrangeProjected
2029
37 / 37Projected — July 2029
The worldObservation
The 1.5°C carbon budget runs out.
On the current emissions path, scientists project the remaining carbon budget for holding warming to 1.5°C is exhausted around here — the line the whole record has been climbing toward.
CO₂ 437 ppm+1.50 °CProjected