2009Dec8: “The year 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization” (WMO).
Reference: World Meteorological Organization http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_869_en.html
Image Description: Global Surface Temperature Trend: Result from three Global datasets: NOAA (NCDC Dataset) , NASA (GISS dataset) and combined Hadley Center and Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia (UK) (HadCRUT3 dataset). Image Location: World Meteorological Organization http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_869_en.html Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.