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Errant Climate May Be Sign of Breakdown, Scientists Say

Moscow is ringed with fires and is covered by smog. China has had devastating mud-slides. The largest chunk of an iceberg for some 50 years has broken off in the Artic. And worst of all something like an estimated 14 to 15 million people have been effected by floods in Pakistan - the result of which by the UN says is worse than the earthquake in Pakistan 2 years ago, the tsunami in 2006 and the Haiti earthquake combined.

What is going here? A piece on CommonDreams may provide a clue:

"Floods, fires, melting ice, and feverish heat — from smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Iowa and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It is not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way.

A firefighter worked to extinguish a blaze outside the town of Shatura, 68 miles southeast of Moscow, yesterday. (Reuters) The weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization says, although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming.

The specialists see an urgent need for better ways to forecast extreme events like Russia’s heat wave and wildfires and the record deluge devastating Pakistan. They will discuss such tools in meetings this month and next in Europe and America, under UN, US, and British government sponsorship.

“There is no time to waste,’’ because societies must be equipped to deal with global warming, says British government climatologist Peter Stott.

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