Most Americans say they believe that temperatures around the
world are going up and that weather patterns have become more
unstable in the past few years, according to a new poll from The
Washington Post and Stanford University. But they also see
future warming as something that can be addressed, and
majorities want government action across a range of policies to
curb energy consumption, with more support for tax breaks than
government mandates. The findings come as the federal government
released a report Tuesday suggesting the connection between last
year's severe weather and climate change. According to the study
issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
changes fueled by the burning of fossil fuels made the 2011 heat
wave in Texas 20 times as likely to occur compared with
conditions in the 1960s. In the report, the scientists compared
the phenomenon to a baseball or cricket player's improved
performance after taking steroids. "For any one of his home runs
. . . during the years the pl