Portent by James Herbert Page B

went on, the topics ranging from the change in rainfall patterns to the drastic reduction in the world's food production, and from the methods of selection forestry to the threats of toxic hazards (Rivers learned that Hugo Poggs was a major contributor to the original volumes of Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials, known more succinctly as Sax by the scientists and environmental health specialists, who still referred to the tome to that day).
        It was soon plain to the climatologist that his host's knowledge of the global crisis was wider ranging: Poggs had conducted detailed studies of every disaster, both major and minor, over the past few years that was environment-related, these as diverse as the widescale spread of infectious diseases and the lack of snow for skiing in the Alps. It had slowly dawned on him where he had heard Poggs' name before: some years ago, this man's paper on 'soft engineering'-working with nature, rather than against it -had been widely acclaimed both for its sound premise and its cost-effectiveness. Later he had predicted the rise in the levels of the planet's oceans because of global warming, listing the countries whose lowlands would be swamped as well as the islands that would disappear altogether. At the time he had been labelled a 'climate hypochondriac', even a 'geophysical Cassandra', and there were enough scientists and fellow-geologists who disagreed with his calculations for Poggs to earn himself media, and thus public, score.
        The fact that this prediction, and others he had made around the same time concerning the future condition of the planet, were proving to be correct of late might well have won him considerable esteem from those same detractors had it not been for one further and quite astounding hypothesis he had presented to the world. From then on Poggs had been dismissed as an eccentric, albeit a rather brilliant one.
        Little had been heard of the man since, hence Rivers' only vague recollection of the name when Poggs had first called. Yet during their discussions throughout the day, he had heard nothing from the man that might have been considered remotely 'eccentric'; however, so far they had not touched on the subject of 'luminous phenomena'.
        Poggs had listened as well as talked, showing a keen interest in Rivers' own opinions on the climate and environmental changes which were, of course, backed by the unique amount of data available to him in his capacity as a senior scientific officer at the Meteorological Office.
        At no time had the climatologist felt under pressure, for although Poggs and his daughter-in-law asked many questions, none required answers that might have been deemed 'official secrets'. He had begun to relax with these people and indeed, had been keen to take on certain information that his own special working group had either overlooked or had paid scant attention to because of data 'overload'. An example was the variable but widespread warming of the Alaskan permafrost (a gauge that changes temperature more slowly than the air and thus often provides a more accurate measurement), a factor that Poggs had determined through his own researches and one which Rivers' own department had inexcusably neglected, perhaps because further evidence of global warming was hardly necessary. However, it was important as far as maintaining complete and precise records was concerned.
        When Poggs' wife joined them again the night was closing in, and shadows in the garden were merging into the natural gloom.
        'The mites are abed,' she told them, switching on a lamp and giving the climatologist a brief but warm smile. 'And waiting for a kiss and a cuddle from Mama. They've already had a chapter, Diane, so don't let them kid you otherwise.'
        Diane stood and brushed out the creases in her denim skirt. 'I won't be long. Mr. Rivers, we'd be pleased if you'd stay over. Believe it or not, there's still plenty