This is a guest post by Jamie L. Vernon, Ph.D., a research scientist and policy wonk, who encourages the scientific community to get engaged in the policy-making process
Many of us were shocked by the horrific tornado outbreaks that occurred this spring. And, yes, parts of the country are currently experiencing record high temperatures this summer, like never-before-seen temperatures as high as 117 degrees Fahrenheit in Childress, Texas. If I was a scaremonger, I might use these events to argue the case for anthropogenic global warming. However, the science doesn't necessarily support this argument, so I do not participate in such behavior. The science predicts that extreme weather events will be more likely and more often, but for now it is difficult to say whether we have reached the point at which those predictions are becoming reality.
To complicate things further, the science behind climate change occasionally presents information that, ...
