Three separate reports released in the last week, show 2010 was either the warmest or second warmest on record, continuing a trend toward significantly warmer global temperatures that is driven by human emissions of Carbon Dioxide. The UN World Meteorological Organization has analyzed the data from the three different sources (which use subtlety different methods) and determined that 1998, 2005 and 2010 are statistically tied as the warmest year on record.

These three reports on global temperature, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Aeronautic and Space Administration of the United States Government and the British government's Met Office with University of East Anglia, all agree that the ten warmest years on record have all taken place in the last thirteen years and that the last nine years have accounted for nine of the ten warmest on record. The increase in global temperatures has been slight -- 2010 temperatures were just over 1.2F or 0.62C above their twentieth century averages (though that, in-turn, is somewhat higher than preindustrial temperatures) -- but significant enough to disrupt global climate patterns.