I remember vividly the first Moby-Dick Marathon reading at my bookshop in Sag Harbor. Some 38 years ago — June 16, 1983, to be exact.

The threat of sea level rise is greater than that presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's own dire reports on climate change, a renowned and controversial scientist told a small group in Sagaponack last week, but similarly divisive proposals to combat anthropogenic climate change would be both safe and effective, he said.