Study links heat waves to warming of planet

"The percentage of the earth's land surface covered by extreme heat in summer has soared in recent decades, from less than 1 percent in the years before 1980 to as much as 13 percent in recent years, according to a new scientific paper. The change is so drastic, the paper says, that scientists can claim with near certainty that events such as the Texas heat wave last year, the Russian heat wave of 2010 and the European heat wave of 2003 would not have happened without the planetary warming caused by human release of greenhouse gases." (08/07/12)