Now for a reality check: This past July and August tied as the hottest months since records started being kept, and some scientists say they probably were the two hottest months ever. As activist Bill McKibben said recently, the world already is engulfed in World War III: Climate change has us under siege. Islands are disappearing; ocean coral is being obliterated by waves of warm water; ice that survived for millennia is now gone. Compare satellite pictures of the Earth today with some taken 30 years ago, and the change is undeniable - although that doesn't mean that most Republicans will stop denying it.