The ambassador is silent for a moment, then continues: “There is
some evidence that, when the ocean currents begin to warm up as they
have, there is an increase in the amount of volcanic activity. This is just
a theory, but that increase could be linked to climate change. Because,
you see, colder ocean fronts keep the surface of the earth sufficiently
cool that movement of molten rock on the surface is kept to a mini-
mum.” (In July 2003, after my visit, Soufriere erupted again, sending
volcanic ash 40,000 feet in the air and spewing rocks and mud down
on houses, but causing no injuries.)
More hurricanes and volcanic eruptions are just the most extreme
manifestations of what is happening to the leeward islands of the West
Indies. Make no mistake: Antigua is still achingly beautiful. Including
day-trippers from the cruise ships, more than half a million visitors
continue to arrive annually to vacation at places such as the Jolly Beach
Resort, enjoying wintertime temperatures in the 80s and cool rum
punches before an evening feast of fresh grouper against a backdrop of
Caribbean steel drums. But there is trouble in this Westerner’s para-
dise, and local Antiguans sense it all around them in myriad ways.
A CHANGINGISLAND
Junior Prosper teaches geography in a secondary school. He also does
volunteer work for the island’s Environmental Awareness Group. On a
Sunday morning, with his wife and daughter in the back of his jeep,
Prosper is taking me to parts of Antigua that I might not otherwise see.
The island is only 9 miles long by 12 miles wide, 108 square miles in
all. Of its 73,000 population, some 30,000 people live in the capital of
St. John’s. But we are bound for the hinterlands, past Dark Wood
Beach and Crab Hill.
I am grateful Prosper is at the wheel. Not only because I cannot get
used to driving on the left side of the road. Or because everyone else
seems to know just where all the potholes are, as they barrel around
corners somehow avoiding goats, cows, and riders on horseback. But
also because there are no street names, or even any signs announcing
what little town you are now passing through. My mind occupied by all
that, I would certainly never have observed solo what Prosper is show-
64 Dick Russell