![](https://develop.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/carfloods.jpg?w=990)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/suckamc/2839632026/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Martin Cathrae</a>/Flickr
One of the biggest challenges when writing about climate change is explaining whether an event was “caused by” global warming. Although global warming certainly creates the conditions that facilitate extreme events like heat waves and storms, it can often be difficult to convey the state of the evidence linking specific types of events to global warming.
Fortunately, the environmental group Union of Concerned Scientists did a pretty good job of that with this new infographic: