You can't tell reality from theory by checking the temperature in one place in one year. The way you do it is by constructing a model that (a) can accurately predict the past (for instance, give it 100 years of data, 1905 to 2005, and then have it "predict" 2005-2015), and then (b) can accurately predict the future (in which you give it the real data, get the results, let it go 10 more years, and then compare the results. There are a large number of models, but when NASA and NOAA then look at the results, they both cooked to books on the sensor data to make it fit the models.
So, so far I don't see a model that we can believe on its face. So, I'm voting "theory".
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.