Autumn in Boston

Though little discussed around here, Boston has enjoyed its longest stretch of perfect weather in many years. Since late July on most days, the sky turns nearly purple by mid morning and the air is so dry that when the sea breeze arrives around dinner time, it is almost too cool. Most years, humid August days lounge and stretch, bumping into each other until a Tuesday becomes a Thursday and before you know it, people are talking about their weekend escapes from the city. All efficiency is lost to the heat until the afternoon bus arrives and you really have to hand it to the driver and to everyone else for working on a day like this.

The fragile warmth of autumn has failed to cause the annual dread of winter, common to Bostonians at this time of year. We're grateful for the weather we've had and also chastened by news reports that in the south an endless drought has caused water to run so low, it may run out.

Atlanta without drinking water makes Katrina look small.

In sub-Saharan Africa, climate change is not hypothetical either. A drought there exacerbates tensions between nations and makes life even more tenuous. Though the Bush administration has disgracefully blocked data from being reported, government scientists have agreed for years that global warming is man-made.

It is self-evident that we are obliged to fix it, if we can.

The skin and hair models who perform local TV news inform us the current stretch of favorable Boston weather is due to a stubborn high pressure system and is unrelated to global warming. In these anxious times, when every storm portends ominous climate change, the unexpected gift of this fall's weather is all the more welcome precisely because we had nothing to do with it.