Well . . . Randall Munroe over at xkcd has a new posting up that clearly illustrates the unprecedented nature of the global warming that we are experiencing these days. I tried to post his infographic directly into this blog entry but couldn't get it to look decent. The posting shows the warming and cooling trends starting 20,000 years ago and continuing up to the present time. It then provides the current scientific estimates for the next 85 years.

Roughly the first 1,200 years of the infographic's timeline appears below. Click here to get the entire timeline.

Spoiler alert!

Over the span of the last 20,000 years, the Earth's average global temperature has gradually risen just slightly over 4°C. Assuming that we stay on our present course, the Earth's average global temperature is expected to rise another 2°C during about the next 80 years. This falls firmly under the category "bad news".