It was a day that could have happened only in a town like ours: thesun was bright, warm even, but there was a chemical haze inthe air, a blurred, dusty quality to the light that we knew from having lived so long inthe shadow of the works.
Then the air grew still and warm and, after a moment in which the earth seemed to draw its breath, the morning sun spread in a rush over the plantation.
One of these changes, which would promote global warming, is a rise inthe level of so-called greenhouse gases (particularly carbon dioxide) which trap heat from thesun and thus warmthe air.