Long, hot summer of fire and floods fits predictions

Charles J Hanley reports from New York on the troubling signs of climate change and efforts to cope

FLOODS, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a summer breakdown. It’s not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way.

The weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organisation says — although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming.