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Extreme summer heat linked to climate change, scientists say

In an opinion article over the weekend in the Washington Post that previewed the findings, the paper’s lead author, James E. Hansen wrote: “It is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.”

The longtime director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Hansen was among the first scientists to warn about climate change and its potential effects during a 1988 Senate hearing. He now says he was mistaken in one critical way: “I was too optimistic.” The effects of climate change are being felt now, not in a distant future, he said.