The Atlantic

A Joy of Summer Is Vanishing Fast

As the climate warms up, cool summer evenings are becoming a distant memory.
Source: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Every summer until fifth grade, my family took the same vacation to the same town on the Jersey Shore. The days were about as idyllic as possible: lots of sunshine, elaborateif the sound I heard—a gentle whoosh that rose and fell—came from the ocean or the street. Half-remembered waves, it turns out, arrive and depart at the same pace as light-controlled traffic. Growing up in New Jersey, you learn that a very thin barrier separates the human world from the natural world.

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