Well, not heeding the warning of scientists, poo-pooing Al Gore and other prophets of climate change, ignoring climate change science and research, and listening to deniers sowing doubts, is returning a bleak and bitter early harvest.

The Associated Press reports that the "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 midsummer 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 Organization says - although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming, ... since so many other factors also affect the day's weather. The WMO did point out, however, that this summer's events fit the international scientists' projections of 'more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming.'"

But the experts are in agreement that "there is no time to waste," societies must begin to deal with global warming.