While governors have declared states of emergency from Louisiana to New Jersey due to the massive snow and ice storm, other examples of extreme weather are being seen across the globe. California is facing possibly its worst drought in 500 years. In Russia temperatures have topped 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the Winter Olympic in Sochi. Meanwhile in Britain, gusts of more than 100 miles per hour lashed western England and Wales overnight, and in London the Thames has risen to its highest level in decades. “This is the kind of crazy weather that scientists said will mark the advent of climate change in its early stages,” says 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. “And it should be the warning that we need to actually do something, but so far our leaders haven’t taken up that challenge.”

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