"It's the environment, stupid!"

Well, we aren't likely to hear those words for a few U.S. election cycles yet. But it has to be coming. Oh yeah, the point of this post.

European researchers say last summer was the hottest on the continent for at least five centuries.

"When you consider Europe as a whole, it was by far the hottest," said Juerg Luterbacher of the University of Bern, Switzerland.

According to the study, published by this week's Science magazine, European winters are also getting warmer.

Average winter and annual temperatures during the past three decades were the warmest for 500 years, it says.

Mr Luterbacher and his team collected data from all over Europe to analyze the continent's temperature history.

Their information included readings from tree rings and soil cores from the year 1500.

BBC has much more

It's the environment, stupid!