NOAA's Paleoclimatology Program is working with scientists from around the world to study past climate in hopes of achieving a better understanding of the Earth's present and future climate. This site was developed to help educate, inform and highlight the importance of paleoclimate research; as well as to show how paleoclimate research relates to global warming and other important issues of climate variability and change. There are two sections to this site: the Story and the Data. The story gives the user a background on climate issues and the scienctific study of climate variability. The goal of the Data section is to offer a comprehensive look at the instrumental and paleoclimatic data that tells us how the Earth's temperature has chang...