A lot of my climatologist and meteorologist friends have been posting links to a recent cartoon from XKCD.com showing a loooooong timeline of global temperature compared to the development of civilization that puts the recent increases in global temperature into context.  IFLScience.com has posted the timeline along with a little explanation of what it shows.  You can see it by clicking here.

Source: XKCD.com as reprinted in IFLScience.com
Source: XKCD.com as reprinted in IFLScience.com