Look at your data.  The last time it trended down significantly there was a major weather event (hint: 1997-1998)...  The same major weather event is upon us right now.<p>Anyhow, fit a regression line, and the trend is upward for most parts of the world.  Maybe someday we&#x27;ll return to an ice age, I mean, we were there in some parts of the world 10000 years ago.  Right now the data shows we&#x27;re in a warming cycle.  It may be human-caused, it may be forces beyond our understanding (after all, the planet has gone through several heating-cooling cycles), but either way it&#x27;s happening.