A wise old book editor taught me years ago that every long story needs, occasionally, what he called a “tour of the horizon” — a pause in the narrative during which the narrator reviews what is going on offstage, as it were, to make sure the reader keeps in mind the context of what is happening on stage, as it were. Let’s do it. Let’s put ourselves in the middle of America, and do a tour of the horizon.

Look west:

Look north:

The global heat wave pushed north of the Arctic circle this year, further reducing the ice pack on the Arctic Sea. It’s not a straight line, year-to-year reduction, but this year the ice pack is the seventh smallest ever, and is nearly 400,000 square miles below average .

The Arctic warming and the reduced ice pack, are releasing methane — a potent greenhouse gas — from the sea floor and from the permafrost, creating a feedback loop that is accelerating northern climate change.

Polar bears, which rely on the sea ice for hunting, are being pushed farther south by the warming. The are slowly starving, and becoming more aggressive. Three weeks ago in northern Canada, a polar bear began to stalk two young children, and killed their father when he tried to protect them .

Look east:

Sea level rise, coming much faster than predicted, is afflicting Florida beach communities , Norfolk city streets , Virginia farm fields , barrier-island beaches and offshore islands.

With the new hurricane season a month old, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico continue to struggle to recover from last year’s monster storms, which are becoming stronger, more intense and more numerous in the warmer, wetter climate.

Although a late June-early July heat wave has broken, brutal heat is expected to return.

Look south:

Texas and the deep South are suffering through one of their worst heat waves ever .

Border agents are struggling to deal with the beginning of what could be a tsunami of migrants displaced from Middle and South America by climate change.

The same problems of sea level rise and more frequent hurricanes bedevil the Gulf Coast states as well.

If we stand on a stepstool, or raise a periscope, to give our tour of the horizon global reach, we see fierce heat waves and wildfire outbreaks in Canada, Siberia, Europe, Africa, Japan, Australia, and many offshore regions around the world.

Personally, I make this tour from a place in West Virginia, where the spring has been wet, the summer mild, where in mid-July the days are warm (in the mid-80s) and the nights cool (low 60s). Streams and ponds are brimming, fields and gardens lush. It is easy to feel, in this favored enclave, that it is only y’all’s end of the Titanic that is burning.