There's a new Washington Post piece about the blame game that's often played with climate change and extreme weather events:

"This year, at least, the question of 'What role did climate change play in (insert a specific extreme event here)?' seems more relevant than ever."

Massive tornadoes, floods, heat waves, and droughts have been hitting different areas of the United States hard this past year and a lot of people are asking about (and some would argue, forcing) the link between climate change and these events. A Climate Central post touched on this a few weeks ago with all the news coverage about Hurricane Irene:

The question: is this weather disaster caused by climate change?

Wrong question.

Here's the right question: is climate change making this storm worse than it would have been otherwise?

Answer: Absolutely

Does focusing more on the cause limit us from preparing for degradation and destruction?