Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2007 tied with 1998 for Earth’s second warmest year in a century.

Determining the concentration of carbon dioxide in the ancient atmosphere remains a critical hurdle to understanding Earth surface temperatures, compositional changes in atmospheric chemistry, and the evolution of Earth’s earliest biosphere.

Increasing Earth temperatures and rising sea levels. Both of these are effects of climate change. The current concern is that human activity is changing our climate at a rate well above the natural climate cycling. Understanding how the Earth's climate system works and responds to human impact is therefore of uttermost importance.