Sorry for some cross-posting, but this is important information to
disseminate. It clearly shows the Bush Administration's refrain of
"more research is necessary" as nothing other than stonewalling.

>Published on Thursday, July 3, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
>
>Reaping the Whirlwind
>Extreme Weather Prompts Unprecedented Global Warming Alert
>
>In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather,
>the World Meteorological Organization signaled last night that the
>world's weather is going haywire.
>
>In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed
>scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted
>record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in
>recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month
>for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate change.
>
>The unprecedented warning takes its force and significance from the
>fact that it is not coming from Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, but
>from an impeccably respected UN Organization that is not given to
>hyperbole (though environmentalists will seize on it to claim that the
>direst warnings of climate change are being borne out).
>
>The Geneva-based body, to which the weather services of 185 countries
>contribute, takes the view that events this year in Europe, America and
>Asia are so remarkable that the world needs to be made aware of it
>immediately.
>
>The extreme weather it documents, such as record high and low
>temperatures, record rainfall and record storms in different parts of
>the world, is consistent with predictions of global warming.
>Supercomputer models show that, as the atmosphere warms, the climate
>not only becomes hotter but much more unstable. "Recent scientific
>assessments indicate that, as the global temperatures continue to warm
>due to climate change, the number and intensity of extreme events might
>increase," the WMO said, giving a striking series of examples.
>
>In southern France, record temperatures were recorded in June, rising
>above 40C in places - temperatures of 5C to 7C above the average.
>
>In Switzerland, it was the hottest June in at least 250 years,
>environmental historians said. In Geneva, since 29 May, daytime
>temperatures have not fallen below 25C, making it the hottest June
>recorded.
>
>In the United States, there were 562 May tornadoes, which caused 41
>deaths. This set a record for any month. The previous record was 399 in
>June 1992.
>
>In India, this year's pre-monsoon heatwave brought peak temperatures of
>45C - 2C to 5C above the norm. At least 1,400 people died in India due
>to the hot weather. In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfall from Tropical Cyclone
>01B exacerbated wet conditions, resulting in flooding and landslides
>and killing at least 300 people. The infrastructure and economy of
>south-west Sri Lanka was heavily damaged. A reduction of 20-30 per cent
>is expected in the output of low-grown tea in the next three months.
>
>Last month was also the hottest in England and Wales since 1976, with
>average temperatures of 16C. The WMO said: "These record extreme events
>(high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and
>droughts) all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages,
>which, for temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past
>100 years.
>
>"New record extreme events occur every year somewhere in the globe, but
>in recent years the number of such extremes have been increasing.
>
>"According to recent climate-change scientific assessment reports of
>the joint WMO/United Nations Environmental Program Intergovernmental
>Panel on Climate Change, the global average surface temperature has
>increased since 1861. Over the 20th century the increase has been
>around 0.6C.
>
>"New analyses of proxy data for the northern hemisphere indicate that
>the increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been
>the largest in any century during the past 1,000 years."
>
>While the trend towards warmer temperatures has been uneven over the
>past century, the trend since 1976 is roughly three times that for the
>whole period.
>
>Global average land and sea surface temperatures in May 2003 were the
>second highest since records began in 1880. Considering land
>temperatures only, last May was the warmest on record.
>
>It is possible that 2003 will be the hottest year ever recorded. The 10
>hottest years in the 143-year-old global temperature record have now
>all been since 1990, with the three hottest being 1998, 2002 and 2001.
>
>The unstable world of climate change has long been a prediction. Now,
>the WMO says, it is a reality.
>
>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0703-05.htm
>http://www.wmo.ch/web/Press/Press695.doc