Was 2007 Really the Second Warmest Year on Record?

Taking the Earth’s temperature is apparently as much art as science. Depending on which data are used and how they are compared and interpreted, intelligent, well-intentioned and highly credentialed people can come up with very different answers to the same questions.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has declared 2007 the second-warmest year on record. That much we already knew from earlier reports. But now, the agency says 2007 is tied with 1998 as the second-warmest year, with 2005 still acknowledged as the hottest.

Meanwhile, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded that 2007 was only the tenth-warmest year in the United States and the fifth-warmest globally.

Regardless of the split decision on where 2007 falls in the world record of hottest years, it is clear that the planet is heating up, that the global warming trend is picking up speed, and that human-generated greenhouse gases are a major factor.

• 2007 Second Warmest Year on Record
• 2007 Was Tied as Earth's Second-Warmest Year -- NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
• 2007 was Tenth Warmest for U.S., Fifth Warmest Worldwide -- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• All About Global Warming
• Top 10 Things You Can Do to Reduce Global Warming