Maybe Chicken Little was right
By MATTERS BY JACK NEWORTH
Many of us choose to live in Santa Monica to be by the ocean. Not that long ago it was assumed that the oceans were too vast for man to damage in a permanent way. Lord Byron, the 19th century poet, wrote, “Man marks the earth with ruin, his control stops with the shore.” Not quite the case, your Lordship.
Last week, I was at the ocean when my umbrella broke. Not exactly big news. But when I bought another, I discovered these days they have UV protection built into it. For a second, I imagined a worker whose job it is to rub sun screen into the material. I’m assuming UV protection means the sun’s harmful rays bores directly through the fabric.
It’s been over 20 years since we first heard about the hole in the ozone. James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, casually recommended people wear a hat. Today, that hat would have to be treated with UV protection. President Bush may be worse than Watt. He still believes the jury is out on global warming. It’s just a theory, like, say, gravity. Meanwhile he’s had skin cancer removed from his nose. Talk about not seeing what’s on the tip of your nose.
So I took my new UV-protected umbrella to the beach, where I read this year’s Heal the Bay Beach Report Card. To summarize: If our beaches were on a pass-fail basis, they’d be held back a year. Even though pollution in the bay has been debated since the ’70s, for some reason I got mad. Like, “bring me the heads of those responsible,” mad.
Still fuming, or just sunburned, I came home and logged onto the Internet. I found a series of recent articles in the L.A. Times called “Altered Oceans,” which describes the world-wide pollution. In Australia, there’s “fireweed,” tufts of hairy growth that spread across the sea floor fast enough to cover a football field in an hour. It sounds like a cheap Roger Corman sci-fi movie from the ’60s, only this is real life, and we caused it.
To find out more about our bay, I contacted Neal Shapiro, an urban runoff management coordinator with the city. He suggested that progress made toward a cleaner bay has been slowed and even setback. The city has recently proposed a $200 million watershed management plan to help to clean up the bay. As I listened, I kept wondering how did we let our ocean get so polluted in the first place?
I also got in touch with Mark Gold, the head of Heal the Bay. A commentary of the times, he and I communicated by e-mails and Blackberrys to set up a meeting. It was-n’t really necessary. Heal the Bay and the city are doing all they can, given their resources. Why don’t they have more resources? What kind of custodians of nature for the next generation are we? Sure, you can go surfing, just wear this head-to-toe body suit.
For most people, life goes on and bills have to be paid. And everyone wants to move here. Real estate prices in Santa Monica continue to soar, which somehow makes me think of Mark Twain. Speaking about native Americans, Twain said to them the notion of owning the land was as absurd as owning the sky. One of his critics asked in all the centuries the Indians ruled the plains, what great inventions did they conceive? On the other hand, I doubt they’d have polluted the bay.
So what can we do now? First, get on the net and type: L.A. Times “Altered Oceans.” Read the five-part series. Locally, there’s the watershed plan on the ballot in November. Check it out and decide what you think. See Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” free at the pier on Sept. 26. Don’t always use the car. Take a walk, or ride a bike. Turn off the lights if you’re not using them. Teach your kids about the big picture, how we’re all in this together.
One thing I’ve done lately seems so trivial it’s hardly worth mentioning. Every time I go to the beach I pick up 10 pieces of trash. It’s absurd, I know. How could it make any difference? On the other hand, maybe if we all pitch in, the sky won’t fall. (Jack Neworth)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 18, 2006. Read the original PDF.