The Earth's temperature in 2001 may have been the second highest in the 140 years that meteorologists have been keeping records of. This was estimated by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). "Temperatures are getting hotter, and they are getting hotter faster now than at any time in the past,' says Michel Jarraud, deputy secretary general of WMO. Nine of the 10 warmest years since 1860 have occurred since 1990. According to WMO officials, temperatures rises now are three times as fast as in the early 1900's. The year 2001 was the 23rd consecutive year with the global mean surface temperature above the 1961-1990 average. These conditions are part of a continuing trend to warmer global temperatures that have resulted in a rise of more than 0.6