Washington can't wait

Call it climate change, or global warming: we are seeing the effect of carbon we put into Earth’s atmosphere with our industrial emissions, traffic and razing of tropical rainforests. Warming is coming far more quickly than scientists predicted even a few years ago.

Top climate scientists are studying the relationship between global warming and extreme weather. Consider what we have seen in recent months:

■ Multiple tornadoes and thunderstorms that devastated the Great Plains and upper Midwest. The Dec. 15 tornado that left a 223-mile path of destruction resulted from the nation’s fir...