Where are we now? Climate "Today" Before we move on to
projections of future state of our planet's climate, let's take
a few looks at the current state of Earth's climate. These
graphs show how carbon emissions, atmospheric concentrations of
carbon dioxide, and global average temperatures have changed in
recent times. This image shows sea surface temperatures (SST)
averaged over a whole year (in this case, 2001). Notice how
temperatures range from freezing (0° C or 32° F) near the poles
to around 30° C (about 86° F) in the tropics. Credits: Image
courtesy of Plumbago via Wikipedia, using data from the World
Ocean Atlas 2001. Here is Earth's surface air temperature in
recent times. This image shows average temperatures for the
period from 1961 to 1990. Credits: Image courtesy of Robert A.
Rhohde and the Global Warming Art project. Average Global
Temperature 1940-2005 | All values are in comparison to
1940-1980 average (green shading). Map at left shows 1995-2005
averages (the orange shaded region on the graph