Historically, the Pacific Northwest of North America has been one of those spots in the world where food is abundant. The sea along its coast has always been a good provider, and the most important gift it has offered up is the Pacific salmon that once filled its rivers and streams from far west of Alaska to Central California. That is changing.

A friend of mine here in Yarmouth County, whose yard backs up on a salt marsh, says that two or three times a year now, the water rises to levels that he used to see only once every 10 years. This is in keeping with reports from around the world, dramatized recently by the government of the Maldives -- a low-lying island nation in the Indian Ocean threatened with extinction by rising seas -- holding a cabinet meeting underwater with scuba gear.