Tribune Writes Context Story, Los Osos Still Goes Missing!
In it’s March 19 “Second National Sunshine Week, Celebrating America’s Public Records Laws,” the Tribune headlined a quasi follow-up story on the previous one they’d run on the Los Osos CSD’s failure to follow state laws concerning getting public records requests out in the time required. The first story was, as usual, totally missing any context -- no notation that the CSD was, uh, beleaguered by some angry citizens attempting to break all their kneecaps, beset with citizen-sponsored lawsuits, and CSD sponsored lawsuits, and facing regime change, general mangers and office personnel put on leave until certain, uh, back-dated documents could be investigated, preparing agendas and paperwork for about a jillion public meetings, and so forth, that might explain (not excuse, but explain) this failure to get public records out in a timely manner.
Nor was there, in the original story, any attempt to compare the LOCSD’s failures with any other city, until a couple of days later, when this excellent story appeared. Headline, “CITIES HERE BALKING ON DOCUMENTS: Six of the county’s seven cities don’t honor requests for records that the law says they must.”
GOSH, you mean Los Osos isn’t alone? That six other cities, none of whom are going through the kind of turmoil and crushing paperwork problems Los Osos is, ALSO fail to comply with the state law? Well, Quel interesting. There was even a sidebar on a “list of the oldest [federal] pending requests” that have still not been filled, so clearly, this is something that’s very common.
And so I read through this whole new story to see if they’d refer back to the original Los Osos story, IN ORDER TO SET THAT STORY INTO CONTEXT and, naturally, that old horse went missing. Not a peep. Not a reference to Los Osos. Zip.
And so we’re left with the cart before the horse, then the cart shows up and the horse is gone missing. And that, of course is what “spin” is all about – separate cart and horse, lose horse. What “context” is all about is – connect cart, horse, traces, wheels, roadway and driver.
Good “watchdog” papers do the latter. The Tribune, alas, too often does the former.
Not known, now that Knight-Ridder has sold i’s holdings, whether the Trib’s new owners, the McClatchy News folks will bring a different editorial/journalistic ethos to the central coast. One can only hope.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Tribune Writes Coherent Story, News At 11!
Finally, the Tribune managed to focus on a story and get to the end of it without wandering off into the desert of muddlement and lost points. Hooray.
However, this still is the Tribune, so, of course, the story is missing some critical CONTEXT. I refer, of course, to the March 17 B-1 Headline, “Records act violations piling up,” which notes that Los Osos CSD board members “say that a staffing shortage makes it difficult to comply with state law” concerning getting public records into the public’s hands within the legally allowed time.
The story further notes that “activists who oppose the board, including officials recalled in an election last September, accuse the district of stonewalling.”
Hmmm, ya think it’s stonewalling or a staff overwhelmed by regime change, new board start-up requirements, staff time focused on about a gazillion public meetings, a week-long negotiation with State Officials with staff preparation time, staff changes, bookkeeping audits, staff members put on leave while the DA investigates weirdness on their watch, and, oh, did I forget to mention, staff time and lawyer’s time spent on lawsuits?
The Tribune states, “Recalled board member Gordon Hensley made 11 requests for documentation since the election, two of which he hasn’t received a response to, and nine of which were sent to the district’s lawyers, who, as in the other cases, have yet to respond. Hensley said he doesn’t care if the lack of response is politically motivated, only that the public cannot get information. [CSD President} Schicker said delay is because of a lack of staff.”
What went missing (Hey, this is the Trib, after all,) is the context that Gordon Hensley, as part of Taxpayers’ Watch, filed a lawsuit against the district before the newly elected CSD board had a chance to park their butts in their chairs. And of his 11 requests, 9 requests were sent to the lawyers. (This begs a question unasked: If you’re actively engaged in a lawsuit with a public entity and your document request relates directly to that lawsuit, can your request legally be treated differently than a routine request made by Joe Q. Public who want copies of last week’s agenda or something? In this case, 9 of Hensley’s request were sent to the lawyers, which makes me curious. The Trib story doesn’t ‘splain either the dates or the requests or the context. )
In a newly changed CSD, beleaguered by, oh, let’s say, lawsuits brought by YOU, it becomes humorous when YOU then complain that documents are delayed because the staff and attorneys are busy dealing with, oh, ummm, let me guess, here . . . oh, yes . . LAWSUITS!
That’s sort of like the piano player in the whorehouse shocked – shocked – that something untowards is going on upstairs.
Well, make no mistake, document delays are legal violations, even for a beleaguered CSD with staffing shortages. Happily, Karen Vega, the administrative secretary, has returned to work, so she should set the office to rights shortly. She had been put on leave pending a SLO District Attorney’s investigation as to how a certain contract came to be, uh, “backdated,” thereby raising the ugly specter of illegally falsified public records. Our local DA declined to pursue the matter, so the CSD is sending the case up to the State’s AG for a look-see, leaving us with the creepy possibility that the Case of the Back Dated Contract will turn into Freitas Redux.
On the other hand, our SLO District Attorney could legally pursue the Case Of The Public Records Act Violations. I’m sure that’s much more important than fully investigating the falsifying of public records and back-dating contracts. So, stay tuned.
And as for the Trib story, here’s the truly wonderful howler: “This is public information and needs to be given the utmost priority,” said The Tribune’s managing Editor Tad Weber. “We are seeking information to fulfill our watchdog role, and without that information we cannot adequately inform the citizens in Los Osos about the biggest controversy facing their town.”
. . . fulfill our watchdog role ?. . . . cannot adequately inform the citizens ?…. Oh, My ears and whiskers. Doncha just love it?
Finally, the Tribune managed to focus on a story and get to the end of it without wandering off into the desert of muddlement and lost points. Hooray.
However, this still is the Tribune, so, of course, the story is missing some critical CONTEXT. I refer, of course, to the March 17 B-1 Headline, “Records act violations piling up,” which notes that Los Osos CSD board members “say that a staffing shortage makes it difficult to comply with state law” concerning getting public records into the public’s hands within the legally allowed time.
The story further notes that “activists who oppose the board, including officials recalled in an election last September, accuse the district of stonewalling.”
Hmmm, ya think it’s stonewalling or a staff overwhelmed by regime change, new board start-up requirements, staff time focused on about a gazillion public meetings, a week-long negotiation with State Officials with staff preparation time, staff changes, bookkeeping audits, staff members put on leave while the DA investigates weirdness on their watch, and, oh, did I forget to mention, staff time and lawyer’s time spent on lawsuits?
The Tribune states, “Recalled board member Gordon Hensley made 11 requests for documentation since the election, two of which he hasn’t received a response to, and nine of which were sent to the district’s lawyers, who, as in the other cases, have yet to respond. Hensley said he doesn’t care if the lack of response is politically motivated, only that the public cannot get information. [CSD President} Schicker said delay is because of a lack of staff.”
What went missing (Hey, this is the Trib, after all,) is the context that Gordon Hensley, as part of Taxpayers’ Watch, filed a lawsuit against the district before the newly elected CSD board had a chance to park their butts in their chairs. And of his 11 requests, 9 requests were sent to the lawyers. (This begs a question unasked: If you’re actively engaged in a lawsuit with a public entity and your document request relates directly to that lawsuit, can your request legally be treated differently than a routine request made by Joe Q. Public who want copies of last week’s agenda or something? In this case, 9 of Hensley’s request were sent to the lawyers, which makes me curious. The Trib story doesn’t ‘splain either the dates or the requests or the context. )
In a newly changed CSD, beleaguered by, oh, let’s say, lawsuits brought by YOU, it becomes humorous when YOU then complain that documents are delayed because the staff and attorneys are busy dealing with, oh, ummm, let me guess, here . . . oh, yes . . LAWSUITS!
That’s sort of like the piano player in the whorehouse shocked – shocked – that something untowards is going on upstairs.
Well, make no mistake, document delays are legal violations, even for a beleaguered CSD with staffing shortages. Happily, Karen Vega, the administrative secretary, has returned to work, so she should set the office to rights shortly. She had been put on leave pending a SLO District Attorney’s investigation as to how a certain contract came to be, uh, “backdated,” thereby raising the ugly specter of illegally falsified public records. Our local DA declined to pursue the matter, so the CSD is sending the case up to the State’s AG for a look-see, leaving us with the creepy possibility that the Case of the Back Dated Contract will turn into Freitas Redux.
On the other hand, our SLO District Attorney could legally pursue the Case Of The Public Records Act Violations. I’m sure that’s much more important than fully investigating the falsifying of public records and back-dating contracts. So, stay tuned.
And as for the Trib story, here’s the truly wonderful howler: “This is public information and needs to be given the utmost priority,” said The Tribune’s managing Editor Tad Weber. “We are seeking information to fulfill our watchdog role, and without that information we cannot adequately inform the citizens in Los Osos about the biggest controversy facing their town.”
. . . fulfill our watchdog role ?. . . . cannot adequately inform the citizens ?…. Oh, My ears and whiskers. Doncha just love it?
Friday, March 17, 2006
CDO Info
The following was written by Rob Shipe, who also wrote the piece I posted on 3/10, “Law of Unintended Consequences.” He is working with the SAFE group of targeted Los Osos 45 residents to prepare for the upcoming CDO hearings in April. I find his comments in the second paragraph under ‘Where We Are Now” particularly telling. Old, untrue tapes playing in the heads of the Regional Water Board members was what I witnessed during the Dec. ACL hearings. Old, untrue information being presented by the staff. That alone should get the attention of everyone in town since we’re ALL targeted by this same Board and Staff. GIGO can have profound implications to a community.
Where We Are And How We Got Here
Like most of our community, many of us have not paid a whole lot of attention to the “sewer” issues in Los Osos over the years. Our feeling was that we specifically elected individuals to handle this situation for us. Let them do their jobs. That however, is no longer our position. We are all recipients of the Water Boards attempt to issue Cease and Desist Orders to our community. Over the past month we have spent incredible hours studying ground water issues in Los Osos. We have read countless files from the Water Board, many reports from Cleath & Associates, as well as individual conversations with many who have lived on the front lines of this issue over the past twenty plus years, on all sides.
History
On September 16, 1983, The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CC-RWQCB) adopted resolution 83-13 requiring the County of San Luis Obispo to build a sewer and a water management plan in Los Osos no later than November 1, 1988. The county moved very slowly towards these goals. By the late 90’s they had finally developed a plan to implement a sewer when and organization called “The Solutions Group” proposed local control of the sewer with a promise of “Better, Cheaper, Faster”. They envisioned a small facility; treating only the worst areas and this would allow them to accomplish their three stated goals. Unfortunately they were not able to meet those goals.
After many project changes, the community voted in a close decision to abandon the plan. A new group gained control of the CSD last year. Unlike their predecessors, they do not claim, better, cheaper, faster. They only claim better. In short, 22 year after the passage of 83-13, Los Osos still does not have a sewer or an adequate water management plan.
After the change in leadership, members and supporters of the previous CSD Board, wrote en mass to the Regional Water Board, asking them to punish our town; to punish us swiftly, forcefully and individually. The Water Board acted on this request on January 27th of this year by issuing Cease and Desist Orders to all of us. Whether by coincidence or intent, within a week of the Water Board’s actions, Taxpayers’ Watch began collecting signatures to dissolve the CSD. This group is founded and financed by the same people who pleaded for you and I to be punished.
Where We Are Now
Our CSD is working to address all the water needs in Los Osos. The “Sewer Plan” the CSD is embarking on, addresses sea water intrusion in our lower aquifer as well as the nitrate and high groundwater problems of our upper aquifer. This CSD is utilizing consulting engineers to determine the best solutions, appropriate location, and cost effective methods for addressing wastewater and managing water resources for the future. This is not about a specific location.
The Regional Water Board believes our town does not want a sewer. They believe the current CSD Board is simply trying to delay the issue. They believe, as our neighbors have claimed, that we need to be severely punished as individuals and as a community. They believe what people from this town have told them. They believe they are doing what is right.
We need to show the town does want a sewer. We need to ensure the current CSD is working diligently towards a new sewer. We need to demonstrate severe punishment is counter productive. We need to explain a moderate point of view. We need them to do what is right.
What You Can Do
First: Get Off The Bench. Many of us have been sitting on the sidelines. Right or wrong, the water board has placed us on the front lines in this issue. While we have been “cursed” with this task, we can turn it into a blessing for our community. We have now been given a voice above others in our town simply because our issue now is everyone’s issue eventually. We need to use this voice to bring our town together and to move this issue forward.
Second, Educate Yourself. Our voice will be most effective if we are able to have a solid understanding of the situation and come to a consensus amongst ourselves. Understand the water issues within the community. Some sources of information available on-line are:
General over view information including the Cease & Desist Order and a search engine for water documents: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast
Specific information regarding the following subjects:
Sea Water Intrusion: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/SWIntrusionFinalGrant.pdf
Basin Plan/ Water Management: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/Julydraft.pdf
LOCSD Waste water plan: http://losososcsd.org/wwp/index.html
Water Board’s Water Quality Enforcement Policy: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/plnspols/docs/wqep.doc
California Water Code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=wat&codebody=&hits=20
Third, Build Your Own Defense. We are all in this together, but we are all punished individually. All documentation for your defense must be submitted by April 5th at 5:00 to the Regional Water Board. While the hearing itself my not be a fair hearing, the evidence you submit or attempt to submit now is what you will have if this case goes before a judge. Fill out the Individual Defense form. And use the items that best suit your own personal situation to build a personal defense. We are here to help you, but you have to help carry your own load.
Fourth, Help Bring the Community Together. There is a portion of our community, on both sides, that will never come to an agreement. We need to work with those, on both sides, that can and will work to bring unity. There are good people that love our town on both sides of the issues. We need to bring them together and create a unified community. In the end, our best defense will comprise three items. A Sewer for the Prohibition Zone, a Septic Management Program for the entire town, and a Water Management Program that effectively addresses nitrates, sea water intrusion, conservation and the economic concerns of our citizens. We need to build bridges within our community, the CSD and the various government entities (RWQCB, SLO County, SWRB…) that have jurisdiction over our town.
To quote Benjamin Franklin:
“We must all hang together,
or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
The following was written by Rob Shipe, who also wrote the piece I posted on 3/10, “Law of Unintended Consequences.” He is working with the SAFE group of targeted Los Osos 45 residents to prepare for the upcoming CDO hearings in April. I find his comments in the second paragraph under ‘Where We Are Now” particularly telling. Old, untrue tapes playing in the heads of the Regional Water Board members was what I witnessed during the Dec. ACL hearings. Old, untrue information being presented by the staff. That alone should get the attention of everyone in town since we’re ALL targeted by this same Board and Staff. GIGO can have profound implications to a community.
Where We Are And How We Got Here
Like most of our community, many of us have not paid a whole lot of attention to the “sewer” issues in Los Osos over the years. Our feeling was that we specifically elected individuals to handle this situation for us. Let them do their jobs. That however, is no longer our position. We are all recipients of the Water Boards attempt to issue Cease and Desist Orders to our community. Over the past month we have spent incredible hours studying ground water issues in Los Osos. We have read countless files from the Water Board, many reports from Cleath & Associates, as well as individual conversations with many who have lived on the front lines of this issue over the past twenty plus years, on all sides.
History
On September 16, 1983, The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CC-RWQCB) adopted resolution 83-13 requiring the County of San Luis Obispo to build a sewer and a water management plan in Los Osos no later than November 1, 1988. The county moved very slowly towards these goals. By the late 90’s they had finally developed a plan to implement a sewer when and organization called “The Solutions Group” proposed local control of the sewer with a promise of “Better, Cheaper, Faster”. They envisioned a small facility; treating only the worst areas and this would allow them to accomplish their three stated goals. Unfortunately they were not able to meet those goals.
After many project changes, the community voted in a close decision to abandon the plan. A new group gained control of the CSD last year. Unlike their predecessors, they do not claim, better, cheaper, faster. They only claim better. In short, 22 year after the passage of 83-13, Los Osos still does not have a sewer or an adequate water management plan.
After the change in leadership, members and supporters of the previous CSD Board, wrote en mass to the Regional Water Board, asking them to punish our town; to punish us swiftly, forcefully and individually. The Water Board acted on this request on January 27th of this year by issuing Cease and Desist Orders to all of us. Whether by coincidence or intent, within a week of the Water Board’s actions, Taxpayers’ Watch began collecting signatures to dissolve the CSD. This group is founded and financed by the same people who pleaded for you and I to be punished.
Where We Are Now
Our CSD is working to address all the water needs in Los Osos. The “Sewer Plan” the CSD is embarking on, addresses sea water intrusion in our lower aquifer as well as the nitrate and high groundwater problems of our upper aquifer. This CSD is utilizing consulting engineers to determine the best solutions, appropriate location, and cost effective methods for addressing wastewater and managing water resources for the future. This is not about a specific location.
The Regional Water Board believes our town does not want a sewer. They believe the current CSD Board is simply trying to delay the issue. They believe, as our neighbors have claimed, that we need to be severely punished as individuals and as a community. They believe what people from this town have told them. They believe they are doing what is right.
We need to show the town does want a sewer. We need to ensure the current CSD is working diligently towards a new sewer. We need to demonstrate severe punishment is counter productive. We need to explain a moderate point of view. We need them to do what is right.
What You Can Do
First: Get Off The Bench. Many of us have been sitting on the sidelines. Right or wrong, the water board has placed us on the front lines in this issue. While we have been “cursed” with this task, we can turn it into a blessing for our community. We have now been given a voice above others in our town simply because our issue now is everyone’s issue eventually. We need to use this voice to bring our town together and to move this issue forward.
Second, Educate Yourself. Our voice will be most effective if we are able to have a solid understanding of the situation and come to a consensus amongst ourselves. Understand the water issues within the community. Some sources of information available on-line are:
General over view information including the Cease & Desist Order and a search engine for water documents: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast
Specific information regarding the following subjects:
Sea Water Intrusion: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/SWIntrusionFinalGrant.pdf
Basin Plan/ Water Management: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/Julydraft.pdf
LOCSD Waste water plan: http://losososcsd.org/wwp/index.html
Water Board’s Water Quality Enforcement Policy: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/plnspols/docs/wqep.doc
California Water Code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=wat&codebody=&hits=20
Third, Build Your Own Defense. We are all in this together, but we are all punished individually. All documentation for your defense must be submitted by April 5th at 5:00 to the Regional Water Board. While the hearing itself my not be a fair hearing, the evidence you submit or attempt to submit now is what you will have if this case goes before a judge. Fill out the Individual Defense form. And use the items that best suit your own personal situation to build a personal defense. We are here to help you, but you have to help carry your own load.
Fourth, Help Bring the Community Together. There is a portion of our community, on both sides, that will never come to an agreement. We need to work with those, on both sides, that can and will work to bring unity. There are good people that love our town on both sides of the issues. We need to bring them together and create a unified community. In the end, our best defense will comprise three items. A Sewer for the Prohibition Zone, a Septic Management Program for the entire town, and a Water Management Program that effectively addresses nitrates, sea water intrusion, conservation and the economic concerns of our citizens. We need to build bridges within our community, the CSD and the various government entities (RWQCB, SLO County, SWRB…) that have jurisdiction over our town.
To quote Benjamin Franklin:
“We must all hang together,
or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Irony 101, Morro Bay versus Los Osos
I received the following email: I find it quite ironic that Los Osos was under a Time Schedule Order – enforced with threats from the RWQCB – that gave us less time than what’s being considered here for Morro Bay, to design, site and built an entire wastewater system. It was a TSO that former CDS General Manager Bruce Buel repeatedly testified, under oath, at the RWQCB’s ACL hearings was “unreasonable.” Los Osos citizens are now being targeted for a completely inappropriate CDO scheme for a project that failed, in part because of the RWQCB’s “unreasonable” time schedule. Go figure.
Dear Sierra Club e-alert subscriber,>> On March 24th, The same water board that brought the hammer down on Los > Osos for not building a sewer fast enough is proposing to give Morro Bay > and Cayucus nearly 10 YEARS to upgrade their jointly operated wastewater > treatment plant, after 30 years of failure to meet the minimum treatment > standards of the Clean Water Act.>> Not ten years to design and build a sewage plant and collection system. > Ten years to upgrade the level of treatment at the existing plant. Larger > California coastal communities with more complex water treatment issues > have managed to upgrade their sewage plants, on average, in three to five > years.>> THE WATER BOARD IS PROPOSING TO PERMIT ANOTHER DECADE OF DEGRADED WATER > QUALITY OFF THE CENTRAL COAST, PUTTING PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE MARINE > ECOSYSTEM AT RISK.>> The MB-Cayucos plant is pumping primary treated effluent -- one step up > from raw sewage -- into the ocean. Morro Bay and Cayucos have been > avoiding compliance with the federal Clean Water Act for 30 years by > virtue of a long series of waivers from the Act.>> There are only three such waivers left on the coast of California. Only > one is for a sewage outfall that is ground zero of a disease epicenter for > the threatened California sea otter: Morro Bay.>> The Morro Bay-Cayucos Sewage Treatment Plant> -MUST NOT receive another waiver> -MUST NOT get approval for a plant upgrade timeline 9.5 years long> -MUST complete the upgrade as fast as possible, as required by law.>> Read: "Morro Bay and Cayucos must not delay sewage clean-up" at> www.santalucia.sierraclub.org/SL/mar06>> And please come speak or be in support:>> Friday, March 24, 8:30 a.m.> Regional Water Quality Control Board> 895 Aerovista Place> San Luis Obispo>> Plan on taking the better part of the afternoon.>
I received the following email: I find it quite ironic that Los Osos was under a Time Schedule Order – enforced with threats from the RWQCB – that gave us less time than what’s being considered here for Morro Bay, to design, site and built an entire wastewater system. It was a TSO that former CDS General Manager Bruce Buel repeatedly testified, under oath, at the RWQCB’s ACL hearings was “unreasonable.” Los Osos citizens are now being targeted for a completely inappropriate CDO scheme for a project that failed, in part because of the RWQCB’s “unreasonable” time schedule. Go figure.
Dear Sierra Club e-alert subscriber,>> On March 24th, The same water board that brought the hammer down on Los > Osos for not building a sewer fast enough is proposing to give Morro Bay > and Cayucus nearly 10 YEARS to upgrade their jointly operated wastewater > treatment plant, after 30 years of failure to meet the minimum treatment > standards of the Clean Water Act.>> Not ten years to design and build a sewage plant and collection system. > Ten years to upgrade the level of treatment at the existing plant. Larger > California coastal communities with more complex water treatment issues > have managed to upgrade their sewage plants, on average, in three to five > years.>> THE WATER BOARD IS PROPOSING TO PERMIT ANOTHER DECADE OF DEGRADED WATER > QUALITY OFF THE CENTRAL COAST, PUTTING PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE MARINE > ECOSYSTEM AT RISK.>> The MB-Cayucos plant is pumping primary treated effluent -- one step up > from raw sewage -- into the ocean. Morro Bay and Cayucos have been > avoiding compliance with the federal Clean Water Act for 30 years by > virtue of a long series of waivers from the Act.>> There are only three such waivers left on the coast of California. Only > one is for a sewage outfall that is ground zero of a disease epicenter for > the threatened California sea otter: Morro Bay.>> The Morro Bay-Cayucos Sewage Treatment Plant> -MUST NOT receive another waiver> -MUST NOT get approval for a plant upgrade timeline 9.5 years long> -MUST complete the upgrade as fast as possible, as required by law.>> Read: "Morro Bay and Cayucos must not delay sewage clean-up" at> www.santalucia.sierraclub.org/SL/mar06>> And please come speak or be in support:>> Friday, March 24, 8:30 a.m.> Regional Water Quality Control Board> 895 Aerovista Place> San Luis Obispo>> Plan on taking the better part of the afternoon.>
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Calhoun’s Can(n)ons
The Bay New, Morro Bay, CA
Spring
We do not see our hand in what happens, so we call certain events “melancholy accidents . . .”
Stanley Cavell
One sniff and there it is, the soft, sweet smell of spring. It’s cold and wet and raining and the dogs are hunched in their sweaters, hustling miserably along the cold breezeway from the yard, rushing to get back into the warm house, but there it is nonetheless: Spring.
Our California seasons may be subtle, but for me they’re as distinct as a bright line drawn in the sky, an invisible change that’s whispered in an instant; one day winter, the next, something soft appears, a touch, a smell, a brief breeze of temperature change, and suddenly the world has turned new once again. Somewhere, everywhere, the buds have ceased dreaming and are swelling out from the dark into the light. The earth sighs and its winter breath is gone.
It may be an odd world view, but such sudden soft beauty on the air only reminds me how precious few these Halcyon days are. According to all reputable scientists, our heedless refusal to think further than our nose, our unwillingness to owe the future anything, our decisions, made one by one, year by year, to know but not know, to know but not act, our continued failure of political and personal will to change our relentless addiction to non-renewable forms of energy, all of this has already set in motion a climate change that nothing, not a million Kyoto treaties, not a billion hybrid cars, not a trillion windmills can stop. What we have begun must now run its awful course, while leaving the fearsome price to be paid by those who come after us.
Today, the Greenland ice pack is disappearing at an alarming rate. Antarctica’s vast ice sheets are slipping away. The polar bears roaming the great wastes of the north may be gone within the lifetimes of our grandchildren. The polar caps now melting will not only raise the levels of the sea, but will shift the vast, globe-circling Gulf Stream, thereby changing weather patterns forever. Thus it begins: Flood, famine, hurricanes that will make Katrina look like a mere nor’easter, coastal cities gone, buried beneath the rising sea, vast migrations of millions of desperate people triggering wars for possession of arable land, potable water and access to vital resources.
Will our grandchildren and great grandchildren curse our names and die of pestilence carried north by fecund, ever evolving insects happy to inhabit a new land made warm and wet by our heedless actions? Those old enough to remember The Old Times, will grieve for what’s been lost, but the young will not care. Who now remembers the deep snows Kennewick Man knew, a walkable Bering Sea, the wooly mammoths? Who will be left to remember polar bears, cows, or cold dogs hunched in their sweaters? History is always an unaffordable luxury to the dying and so it will be forgotten or re-written as myth. The surviving young will adapt into a brave new world and will cease to care that that polar bears ever once roamed anywhere. Polar bears will be as remote and curious to them as pterodactyls are to us.
In the mass die-offs – of people and countless species – there will be new creatures brought forth. There always are. The strong, the smart, the adaptable will mutate and survive. The rest won’t. And the grief of their passing will be lost to the fierce winds. Mother Nature, Gaia, the Great Goddess Earth, doesn’t much care who or what comes forth from her fertile loins. Something will. Something always does.
Yet, even in our new world, there still will be seasons – the tilting of the earth’s axis will ensure that. A winterish time will be followed briefly by something softer, sweeter on the air. As it was, as it is, as it ever will be, world without end, the earth will abide. And perhaps, once again, in some far distant future, someone will pause of a morning to sniff the air and think, Ah, yes, Spring.
The Bay New, Morro Bay, CA
Spring
We do not see our hand in what happens, so we call certain events “melancholy accidents . . .”
Stanley Cavell
One sniff and there it is, the soft, sweet smell of spring. It’s cold and wet and raining and the dogs are hunched in their sweaters, hustling miserably along the cold breezeway from the yard, rushing to get back into the warm house, but there it is nonetheless: Spring.
Our California seasons may be subtle, but for me they’re as distinct as a bright line drawn in the sky, an invisible change that’s whispered in an instant; one day winter, the next, something soft appears, a touch, a smell, a brief breeze of temperature change, and suddenly the world has turned new once again. Somewhere, everywhere, the buds have ceased dreaming and are swelling out from the dark into the light. The earth sighs and its winter breath is gone.
It may be an odd world view, but such sudden soft beauty on the air only reminds me how precious few these Halcyon days are. According to all reputable scientists, our heedless refusal to think further than our nose, our unwillingness to owe the future anything, our decisions, made one by one, year by year, to know but not know, to know but not act, our continued failure of political and personal will to change our relentless addiction to non-renewable forms of energy, all of this has already set in motion a climate change that nothing, not a million Kyoto treaties, not a billion hybrid cars, not a trillion windmills can stop. What we have begun must now run its awful course, while leaving the fearsome price to be paid by those who come after us.
Today, the Greenland ice pack is disappearing at an alarming rate. Antarctica’s vast ice sheets are slipping away. The polar bears roaming the great wastes of the north may be gone within the lifetimes of our grandchildren. The polar caps now melting will not only raise the levels of the sea, but will shift the vast, globe-circling Gulf Stream, thereby changing weather patterns forever. Thus it begins: Flood, famine, hurricanes that will make Katrina look like a mere nor’easter, coastal cities gone, buried beneath the rising sea, vast migrations of millions of desperate people triggering wars for possession of arable land, potable water and access to vital resources.
Will our grandchildren and great grandchildren curse our names and die of pestilence carried north by fecund, ever evolving insects happy to inhabit a new land made warm and wet by our heedless actions? Those old enough to remember The Old Times, will grieve for what’s been lost, but the young will not care. Who now remembers the deep snows Kennewick Man knew, a walkable Bering Sea, the wooly mammoths? Who will be left to remember polar bears, cows, or cold dogs hunched in their sweaters? History is always an unaffordable luxury to the dying and so it will be forgotten or re-written as myth. The surviving young will adapt into a brave new world and will cease to care that that polar bears ever once roamed anywhere. Polar bears will be as remote and curious to them as pterodactyls are to us.
In the mass die-offs – of people and countless species – there will be new creatures brought forth. There always are. The strong, the smart, the adaptable will mutate and survive. The rest won’t. And the grief of their passing will be lost to the fierce winds. Mother Nature, Gaia, the Great Goddess Earth, doesn’t much care who or what comes forth from her fertile loins. Something will. Something always does.
Yet, even in our new world, there still will be seasons – the tilting of the earth’s axis will ensure that. A winterish time will be followed briefly by something softer, sweeter on the air. As it was, as it is, as it ever will be, world without end, the earth will abide. And perhaps, once again, in some far distant future, someone will pause of a morning to sniff the air and think, Ah, yes, Spring.
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