We don’t have to be scientists to realize: it has been HOT.

Nor can we help noticing that tides seem generally higher than in the past; could saltwater intrusion be a cause of trees dying around the shoreline?

The doubters don’t argue that the weather is not getting warmer; they just contend that human activity (especially buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) has not caused the change.

Possibly, possibly, we experience rapid warming as the result of some natural cycle, but to our way of thinking, it seems both irresponsible and willfully blind to discount any human contribution—a factor that can be changed.

Summer headlines have been alarming. "Large part of Greenland’s ice sheet—melts." "July 2012—hottest month on record for contiguous United States!"

In Virginia, it was the hottest July ever.

A weighty body of evidence points to the human touch in this swelling warmth, and its consequences.

Homo sapiens, a remarkable creatur...