Number 474 (Story #2), March 10, 2000 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein 16 CONSECUTIVE MONTHS OF RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES (global mean temperature; during 1997 and 1998) suggest to Thomas Karl (director of the National Climate Data Center, NCDC) that a human-induced global warming trend, and not merely the kind of natural temperature fluctuations one expects to see in the climate record, is under way. According to Karl, the last quarter-century of data are characterized by a temperature gradient of two degrees Celsius per century. The 16-month streak is unmatched in temperature records dating back to the nineteenth century. (Thomas Karl in Geophysical Research Letters, 1 March /pnu/2000/; tkarl@ncdc.noaa.gov, 828-271-4476.)