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Opening Arguments

This is what hype looks like

Fear-mongering crap from a supposedly responsible news organization:

WASHINGTON (AP) - If you want a glimpse of some of the worst of global warming, scientists suggest taking a look at U.S. weather in recent weeks.

Horrendous wildfires. Oppressive heat waves. Devastating droughts. Flooding from giant deluges. And a powerful freak wind storm called a derecho.

These are the kinds of extremes climate scientists have predicted will come with climate change, although it's far too early to say that is the cause. Nor will they say global warming is the reason 3,215 daily high temperature records were set in the month of June.

Scientifically linking individual weather events to climate change takes intensive study, complicated mathematics, computer models and lots of time. Sometimes it isn't caused by global warming. Weather is always variable; freak things happen.

In the winter at least we are able to read stories about current conditions without the added hysteria over "climate change." Only in summer are we treated to the confusion (sometimes quite deliberate) of climate with weather, along with appropriately scary headlines like  "This US summer is what global warming looks like." Note that little disclaimer snuck into the third paragraph -- "although it's far too early to say that is the cause." If that's the case, why do we need an 800-plus-word story hinting at just the opposite?

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