Weather at the Tipping Point?

Coincidence is a strange thing.

Yesterday I read about 350.org - the website of well-known environmentalist Bill McKibben, who has said that 350ppm is the magic number of CO₂ in the atmosphere; the tipping point of Global Warming. If you're in the know, you'll also realize that we are past that number.

Then today there's this story about the record number of tornadoes in the Mid-West so far this year and all the people they've killed.

Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar could wind up killing close to a quarter million.

Stephen J. Gould claimed that humans are pattern seeking primates, that our brains were built to find patterns and that could lead us astray when we try to force patterns on phenomena where there are none. If that is so, how can so many of our fellow travellers on this small planet not see a pattern that is so clearly there, one which scientists have very forcefully shown to be there?

Yes, coincidence is a very strange thing. But what about when it's not coincidence?