Figure 8: Global temperature anomalies for 2000 to 2009. Temperature anomalies do not depict absolute temperature, but rather how much warmer or colder a region is compared to the norm for that region from 1951 to 1980. Global temperatures from 2000–2009 were on average about 0.6°C higher than they were from 1951– 1980. The Arctic, however, was about 2°C warmer.1

• 1.

  By NASA images by Robert Simmon, based on data from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGISS_temperature_2000-09_lrg.png