Stan Grossfeld alerts us to the dangers of global warming in the Boston Globe, November 30, 1997. What follows is the second paragraph of the front page lead above the fold, one of a series of articles on "Broken Promises: Earth Summit Revisited":

It's high tide and Chesapeake Bay is pouring into tiny Smith Island 10 miles from the mainland. It is the kind of raw November day when cats and dogs marooned on porches forget their differences and snuggle together for warmth. Women stay inside and bake the local treat, eight-layer cakes, that stand taller than the flat land. Watermen, as the local soft shell crab fishermen call themselves, huddle in the village at Tylerton's only store, sipping only soft drinks since alcohol is not sold on the island. The sober fact is that this way of life, as rare as a pearl in an oyster shell, is dying.

The few remaining local residents seem to believe that their island, which lies about a foot about sea level, is being washed away by erosion and sinking rapidly due to groundwater depletion by about an inch every five years. One man who measured sea levels over thirty years notes no change. But Steve Leatherman of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center disagrees. While the article cites no evidence of rising sea levels, Leatherman insists that "these people are living in denial, and denial isn't just a river in Egypt."

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