"I have gone a step further and actually looked at the data myself instead of relying on others to tell what the deal is." You and me too! I get most of my info from the commentary at http://www,realclimate.org Also from James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies who just wrote a letter which I think is worth the read, Temperature of Science at http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20091216_TemperatureOfScience.pdf That's why I know all the noise from the denialist crowd about the infamous "Hockey Stick" graph is just so much hot air (pun intended). Trying to decipher the actual studies is beyond my capabilities as I don't speak the language, so to speak.