CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Horrifying floods in Pakistan have made millions homeless and helpless, threatening a terrible death toll from disease and deprivation. Moscow is strangling from unstoppable forest fires caused by heat and drought. Mudslides are killing multitudes in China. Heat records are being shattered from the tropics to the Arctic.

What do these costly weather woes have in common? All were predicted by climate scientists who say "greenhouse gases" are turning Planet Earth into a cooker.

"Global warming is one of the most massive health emergencies facing humanity," Mike Tringale of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation said last week.

Omar Baddour of the U.N. World Meteorological Organization told Reuters reporters: "It looks like climate change is exacerbating the intensity of the extremes."

Dr. Amanda Staudt of the National Wildlife Federation declared that 2010 "is a sample of what's to come because global warming is bringing more frequent and severe heat waves which will seriously impact vulnerable populations."

A German insurance firm, Munich Re, says its disaster database "shows that the number of extreme weather events like windstorm and floods has tripled since 1980, and the trend is expected to persist."

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last week that 2010 promises to be the hottest year ever recorded around the world since reliable data began in 1880. The warm-up is expected to melt more polar ice and raise sea levels, menacing coastal cities.

"There is strong evidence that global sea level is now rising at an increased rate and will continue to rise during this century," NOAA says.

In Congress, the House passed a bill to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from burning fossil fuels -- but the Senate abandoned the attempt, defeated by Republicans and coal-state Democrats.

Politicians may have surrendered, but nature isn't surrendering. The daily news is a grim display of evidence that should be pondered solemnly.