It used to be the big debate in climate change circles. Whenever an extreme event occurred — like, say, Hurricane Katrina, or the deadly 2003 European heat wave — the question would immediately arise as to whether it was legitimate to in any way “link” it to climate change. Usually, some errant activist would draw the connection, and climate skeptics would pounce, denouncing the leap and questioning any causal attribution. Over time, though, scientists have clarified matters. They’ve explained that while global warming doesn’t “cause” any single event, it can make them more likely to occur, not unlike (in the helpful analogy) the loading of dice. Indeed, published papers have shown that a warming climate had indeed increased the odds of a number of individual extreme events, including the 2003 European heat wave, the 2010 Russian heat wave and the 2013 Australian summer heat. Read more http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ically-upped-the-odds-of-extreme-heat-events/
