Why The Burst of 'Hottest Year' News?

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UPDATE: August 2nd:  This burst of publicity just before an apparent cooling has prompted a posting at WattsUpWithThat.

If you have been reading the popular media the last few days you have seen a burst of 'hot' news from NASA...
from treehugger.com

...and from NOAA.

Other than the obvious question ("since they only have six months of 2010 data, how can they know it is the 'hottest ever'?"), what might account for this sudden burst of publicity?

Here's an idea:  Temperatures are headed down. As I explain in the "Wisdom of Inaction" post below, solar and oceanic temperature influences seem to be converging to cause a period, perhaps an extended period, of significant cooling. There is the possibility that these influences will falsify the IPCC's hypothesis that CO2 is the driving force in climate.

Lower atmosphere temperatures as sensed by satellite indicate atmospheric cooling is occurring at the present time. 
Courtesy, University of Alabama

So, I suspect that some of the activist-scientists wanted to get in a "last shot" while temperatures are still relatively high.

To be clear, I do believe we are running a risk pouring CO2 into our atmosphere and smart decarbonization makes sense. As I say in the "inaction" post, we'll likely have the scientific answers within five years. If the IPCC's hypothesis turns out to be correct, I'll be the first to say we need to take major action.

UPDATE: Fixed poor grammar.

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