Weather report: more climate change?

Invariably, after a weather anomaly hits the United States, there's an article in the mainstream press asking, "Was this hurricane / tornado / flood / drought the result of climate change?" And just as invariably, the answer is "no." "We don't have enough data" to show, definitively, that killer weather is not part of a short-term trend. Maybe so--I'm not a climatologist. And I haven't studied the literature enough to know whether the experts cited by the media represent the consensus, or are sock puppets of the petroleum industry. In the back of my mind, however, I've begun to worry that some experts--even government experts--believe that climate change is accelerating, and the public must be kept in the dark to an impending catastrophe. (Just as we must be kept in the dark to other things.)

On a related note, I was one of the first purchasers of Whitley Strieber's "The Key." Maybe I ought to dig it out and re-read it. I was disturbed by it in '02 and haven't gone back to it. I didn't trust the narrative, and there was some chatter on various boards at the time that Strieber had in fact met this man several times before the hotel encounter. I don't know. What it ultimately boiled down to was that I really didn't understand the book (which is how many react to the Seth writings). But I would like to find any references to climate change. Contrary to what Strieber has said, "The Key" was not the "first time" the current climate change theories have been mentioned, although it's probably the first reference to "sudden climate change." I take this topic seriously because it's been a recurring theme if my dreams since I first started recording them. In the '70s, climate change was unknown, but I was dreaming about it. I'd like to dig those dreams up to see what they say to me now.

In any case, as storms, tornados and floods wreak havoc across the nation, how many thousands will have to die before the pundits say "Oops--this really IS the result of climate change. My bad"? Probably when it's too late.