Data collected from around the globe indicate that 2007 ranks as the second-warmest year on record, according to a new analysis from climatologists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.A second team of scientists, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has come up with slightly different results using the same raw data -- suggesting that last year was the fifth-warmest on record -- but the groups reached the same conclusion on where Earth's climate has been headed for the past quarter-century. Taking into account the new data, they said, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.
NOAA's National Climatic Data Center researchers used the same readings but did not include December in their preliminary assessment, which will be finalized next week. The groups also analyzed the data a bit differently to compensate for phenomena such as the urban heat island effect and gaps in data.
Asked about the agency's findings, NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen said, "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures in the last 50 years is very likely due to increased human-induced greenhouse gas concentrations, but we cannot yet discern warming trends in the last 10 years with the same resolution."
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Rafe Pomerance, president of the advocacy group Clean Air-Cool Planet, said he expects "the new data will continue to heighten concern around the world. The need for intervention to turn down emissions is more apparent than ever."