WiLD Blog

My sympathies go out to all the people who have suffered during this time of crisis. My respects go out to all of the amazing firefighters, peace officers, workers, volunteers and public officials who have worked overtime to fight the fires and provide a measure of security for our city.

But homeland security is not just about defeating the enemy at hand. It is about creating a climate of security that foresees and prevents threats. These fires have shown that the biggest threats to our security are from natural disasters and our own flawed model of urban development and dysfunction. It is imperative that we demand leadership for our future and our security that is more than just about endless development and mindless growth. It is about being strategically green, or as Thomas Friedman,

our new green guru, so eloquently argues,

Being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence - that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad. Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's a national security imperative.

Assemblymember Lori Saldana argues that renewable power is good for the planet and good for our security here in San Diego,

One climate change-related issue is critical: we need distributed and locally-generated renewable power for San Diego County's security, i.e.- solar panels on every public building. Here's one reason why: My district (the 76th) has no fires, so we are evacuation ground zero - taking in thousands of people from around the county. If power lines to the stadium had burned, we would be in big trouble. Of the 6000+ people at the Q, many are seniors from assisted living, needing various levels of medical care. If there were solar panels around the stadium we could generate power 300 days/year, mostly for the grid.

Another reader, Carrie Schneider, comments that,

Power lines are the putative cause in the largest fire (Witch). A downed power line is a scary source of ignition in a high wind, because the fire is immediately huge. The fire to the south (Harris) affected transmission from a major corridor, causing SDG&E to issue power conservation pleas.

The real issue is how can San Diego learn from this disaster and create an opportunity to establish our city as “America’s finest green city”? One reader, JR argues that,

San Diego may want to revisit the concepts of large parklands running from the mountains to the sea, and looking at Jim Bell's idea of increased urban density. This may not alleviate the chances of fires, but it may make them less disastrous to so many.

I understand that fires have been around for a long time. But the correlation between climate change, prolonged drought and increased fire seasons is a scientific fact (see Tom Swetnam’s co-authored article). There is no debate on this point.

Our climate has changed, and now we have to respond and radically change the way we do things to prevent more human-caused natural disasters. Friedman, as always, makes this very clear:

We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq, but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home. That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewable energy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than the welfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last year as an energy bill. Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates of spreading democracy around the world, live green. Green is the new red, white and blue.

Is San Diego up to the challenge?

-- SERGE DEDINA

Originally published in the VOICEOFSANDIEGO.ORG

As I sit here in my Imperial Beach seaside office, I almost feel disconnected from the fire crisis in the rest of San Diego County. The wind is blowing slightly out of the west. The sun is out. The clouds of ash in the sky have diminished. For the third day in a row the surf is absolutely perfect -- roping south swell barrels with minimal crowd.

But of course the real tragedy lies north and just to the east. More than 500,000 people evacuated, 2,000 structures destroyed, scores of injuries and at least six deaths and close to 300,000 acres in flame from Tecate to Malibu. The crazy and continually changing nature of Santa Ana winds contribute to the inability of firefighters to combat the fires. On Sunday afternoon when the fires first began, the wind must have shifted in Imperial Beach every 10 minutes.

There are shelters and locations for the evacuees although mega traffic jams have impeded quick exits from many areas and the Los Angeles Times  reported that many of the lessons that should have been implemented from the Cedar Fire were ignored. I watched Matt Lauer interview Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Today Show, and the governor looked and sounded good and exuded compassion, concern and leadership.

The real story of course is not just this fire, our second mega-fire in four years, but the changing nature of the ecology of our region that results in these man-made tragedies. Accelerated urban growth in fire-prone areas combined with strong Santa Anas and prolonged drought conditions makes San Diego along with Atlanta and New Orleans the poster cities for the negative consequences of global climate change.

At least San Diego understands it has a fire problem. In today’s New York Times, Atlanta authorities are blaming their water crisis due to the worst ever recorded drought, on the water needs of several endangered species.

Research on the causes of southern California fires has been fairly extensive, with the United States Geological Survey publishing research on the historical nature of fires in our region.

Dr. Jon Keeley, a USGS fire researcher and his colleague, C. J. Fotheringham of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that although fire suppression is critical to protect homes, buildings and other structures, fire suppression does not prevent large wildland fires in southern California shrublands because these fires usually occur with powerful Santa Ana winds that blow at high speeds from the desert to the coast. In the present fire, hot Santa Ana winds of over 60 mph greatly increased the intensity and the movement of the fire. Since 1910, chaparral fires have become more frequent as the human population has grown but fire size has not increased. One of the largest fires in Los Angeles County (60,000 acres) occurred in 1878, and the largest fire in Orange County’s history, in 1889, was over half a million acres. The greater financial cost of fires today is most likely the result of constant urban expansion into areas subject to frequent burning.

On Sunday night Scott Pelley of CBS’s 60 Minutes did an excellent job covering the issue of mega-fires and climate change. He interviewed Tom Swetnam a University of Arizona dendrochronologist and expert on fire ecology in the southwest. He also spent time on a fire line in Idaho with Tom Boatner who is chief of fire operations for the federal government.

Swetnam found recent decades have been the hottest in 1,000 years. And recently, he and a team of top climate scientists discovered something else: a dramatic increase in fires high in the mountains, where fires were rare. ” The fire season in the last 15 years or so has increased more than two months over the whole Western U.S. So actually 78 days of average longer fire season in the last 15 years compared to the previous 15 or 20 years," Swetnam says.

Swetnam says that climate change -- global warming -- has increased temperatures in the West about one degree and that has caused four times more fires. Swetnam and his colleagues published those findings in the journal "Science," and the world’s leading researchers on climate change have endorsed their conclusions. “As fires continue to burn, these mega-fires continue to burn, we may see ultimately a majority, maybe more than half of the forest land converting to other forest, other types of ecosystems," Swetnam says.

"You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change," Pelley remarks. “You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," Tom Boatner says. "'Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we’re seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes."

Maybe just maybe, Mayor Jerry Sanders and rest of his do-nothing and see-nothing team will become national leaders on the issue of combating climate change. Probably they won’t. It is too bad because Schwarzenegger made it very clear in his interview this morning that climate change has played a major role in increasing the length of the fire season.

With one of the driest years and worst droughts in recorded history in San Diego, now would be the time to change our course in order to take advantage of what Thomas Friedman calls “the power of green.”

-- SERGE DEDINA
Originally published in the VoiceofSandiego.org

 

The benefit of renewable energy sources has increasingly attracted the attention of many.  With the emergence of a market friendly to environmentally considerate products, people are becoming more aware of the controversies surrounding their current energy mode.  It is to no surprise that the re-construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal, off the coast of Oxnard in Clearwater Port, has been received with much opposition. 

The $600-million NorthernStar project will, disturbingly, sit near the Channel Islands Natural Marine Sanctuary; a major stop along the migratory route of the gray whale. The Clearwater port project will be transformed from an already existing terminal, sitting only 12.6 miles away from thousands of Ventura County residents.  The LNG focused energy company, NorthernStar, along with Clearwater Port have both vowed to take an “environmentally sound approach to preserving the ocean horizon and the beach. ” Oddly enough, their proposed approach seems as if it will fall short of accomplishing anything.  Clearwater Port approach seems only to reiterate the same fact: it is building upon an existing infrastructure.  They maintain their project is sound because they will not be building anything new?  It is as if transforming an already existing platform is one of the only ways this company can display its sudden affinity for preserving nature.  Perhaps they should take a different approach.  The Environmental Defense Center makes a few environmentally sound suggestions, such as establishing a mandatory LNG carrier speed limit or installing passive acoustic monitoring systems to aid in the detection of animals.  But there is always another option, the safest option: abstinence. 

Constance Quiroz

If you are interested in sustainable development and low-impact tourism than Cancun is the Godzilla of Mega-Tourism. A relic of the nuclear age causing havoc and terror on one of the world's most ecologically signficant coastal and marine ecosystems.

Of course for the officials with Mexico's Ministry of Tourism Cancun is the Sun God that should be replicated throughout Mexico's coastline. These officials know better, but for some reason they believe they must convince investors that they too believe in the God of Cancun.

That is why when I read articles about their proclomations about the "next Cancun" to be built on a virgin stretch of coastline on the

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Sea of Cortez I get concerned. Here is a summation of new plans for the area between San Luis Gonzaga and Bahia de los Angeles in Baja California,

 

 

TIJUANA – The Mexican tourism agency behind the development of major
resorts such as Cancun and Los Cabos is now setting its sights on the
sparsely populated Gulf of California region for its next mega-project.

Miguel Gómez Montt, director general of Fonatur, said in an interview
yesterday that his agency is studying 10 areas on the gulf, hoping to
“choose one and promote it.”

“We need to build three Cancuns, and we are analyzing where we could do
so, and one of them could be in this zone,” said Gómez Montt, who
discussed his agency's upcoming project during an investment summit
promoting the Gulf of California.


In Baja California, Fonatur is focusing on the area between Bahia San
Luis Gonzaga and Bahia de los Angeles on the states' east coast. The
region is known for its stark beauty and broad vistas of the Gulf of
California, also called the Sea of Cortez.

The sparsely populated gulf is prized by environmentalists and
scientists for its rich marine life and many endemic species. In 2005,
244 islands in the gulf were designated a United Nations World Heritage
site. Earlier this year, President Felipe Calderon's administration
designated the marine region off Bahia de los Angeles as a Biosphere
Reserve.

Fonatur has for years been trying to find land for a marina in Bahia de
los Angeles. Gómez Montt said the Baja California government has given
Fonatur a piece of land in the town and that his agency hopes to build
its facility there next year.

It is unfortunate that FONATUR has not learned from its mistakes at Santa Rosalillita (the agency knows that failed marina is a disaster). Serge

Watch out Imperial Beach, you’ve got competition in the “Great places to catch waves as well as waterborne diseases” category. Surfers in the Ricon Point region between Ventura and Santa Barbra counties have long complained about getting sick and blame has been placed on the leaky septic tanks of the exclusive, multimillion dollar homes of Rincon point. It’s ironic that these people can afford luxury houses yet they still have leaky septic tanks. I guess there are some things money can’t buy. But apparently it can buy a new sewer system, which has been proposed as a solution to the septic problem.

Overall, it’s pretty sickening to see how much of a dumping ground the ocean has become. I spent my afternoon surfing, and while watching a pod of dolphins play in the surf while the sun was setting I noticed a diaper floating a few feet to the left of me. I felt sick watching it float by.

Whether you swim, surf, fish, or just walk along the beach you’re bound to notice the trash and waste that’s ending up in the ocean. It’s not always plastic bags and bottles that you see floating but its fact that you can smell the wastewater and see the way the waves turn a sickly tanish color. Stories like Ricon Point and Imperial Beach are just some of the few stories that demonstrate how we’re dumping what we don’t want into the ocean and endangering the health of those that use the beach as well organisms that live in the ocean.

Support the Clean Water Now campaign by writing to your local congressional leader about the problems our beaches face and why they’re important to us. There are  other ways to help as well, such as helping out with beach clean ups and being conscious of your impact on the beach. Don’t hesitate to ask others (politely) to pick up their trash if they leave it behind. It’s a public beach, not a public dumping ground.

Calvin Lee

A public beach is meant for the public, so why has a beach that’s been bought using taxpayer money remained closed for the public while remaining a private playground for the rich and famous? El Sol County Beach doesn’t even show up in maps of Malibu and remains effectively walled off by private property, chain link fences with barb wire and rocky points at either end of the beach. Despite the fact the beach was meant for public access it’s remained a private playground for the past 30 years.

The land around the area is owned by the rich and famous such as Michael Eisner and Gregory J. Bonann, co-creator of the “Baywatch” series. A recently retired county employee, Joe Chesler, attributes the county’s “lack of political will” to the fact that these beach bullies have applied some major political and economic pressure to the plans to open up the public beach. These private owners have argued that opening up the beach will causing biological harm to the marine ecosystem in the area, as well as various other arguments including how the beach is “not safe for anybody. It’s caving in right now and infest with rabbits.” Yet these private property owners are perched on top of the disputed land.

The fact that these guys don’t want anyone going to the beach because it’s too dangerous, yet they live right next to it and use it as their private stomping grounds underlines the ludicrous nature of their arguments. Its one thing to be concerned about the pristine nature of the beach but it’s a whole different story when these guys start acting as if they know what’s best. Granted increased public access could cause problems but if these guys truly cared then they could be developing conservation programs rather than throwing money at the political system in an effort to keep the public away.

In the end it’s clear that it’s become a battle between the haves and the have-nots. Unfortunately they’ve kept us have-nots out of something that we should all have; access to a beautiful and clean beach.

Calvin Lee

Marine turtles almost always return to the same beach to lay their eggs. The egg-laying sites are often far from the feeding areas and the females cross several hundred kilometers of ocean with no visual landmarks. How do they manage to return to the same spot?

A study by Simon Benhamou of the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at Montpellier, France, together with other groups, shows that the marine turtles use a relatively simple navigation system involving the earth's magnetic field, and this allows them to return to the same egg-laying site without having the ability to correct for the deflection of ocean currents. This work, published in Current Biology and Marine Ecology Progress Series, should allow better conservation strategies for this endangered species.

Every 4 years, on average, Indian Ocean green turtles (Chelonia mydas) travel hundreds of kilometers to specific egg-laying areas, where they will lay 4 to 6 successive clutches. To better understand the navigation process and the sensory channels involved in this long-distance oceanic travel, the researchers have conducted a multidisciplinary study, involving biology and physical oceanography, in two series of experiments. In the Mozambique Channel, between the east coast of Africa and Madagascar, on the beaches of the French Islands of Europa and Mayotte, they caught turtles at the beginning of their egg-laying cycle, so that the animals were strongly impelled to return to this area to complete their cycle. After having Argos transmitters fitted to their shells in order to satellite track their return journey to the beach, the animals were released in open sea, several hundred kilometers from the egg-laying site.

The first experiment was to study the navigation system of the marine turtles and discover how they detect the ocean currents: are the turtles' movements controlled by the currents or can they use them to their benefit? The study has shown that the marine turtles' navigation system allows them to maintain their course towards the egg-laying site wherever they find themselves. It is almost as if they were equipped with a compass pointing towards the beach in question. So they can correct any deflection they are subject to: transport by boat, ocean currents... But, unlike human navigators, they are not able to correct for ocean drift in plotting their course. So the movements recorded by the satellite are a combination of deliberate action by the turtles and the effect of currents. So it appears that the turtles' navigation system is relatively simple and may cause them to be wander at sea for long periods during adverse ocean conditions. One turtle released 250 km from its egg-laying site on Europa traveled more than 3 500 km in two months before returning there!

In the second experiment, the researchers have studied the effect of the earth's magnetic field on the turtles' navigation system. They have shown, for the first time in natura, that marine turtles use the magnetic field of the earth to orientate themselves. When this field is disturbed by placing a powerful magnet on their heads, turtle navigation is not as good. But the fact that they can still return to their original egg-laying site shows that the geomagnetic field is not the only information source that they use. Researchers think the turtles may also use their sense of smell like certain sea birds or homing pigeons. This hypothesis remains to be proven...

This work should improve conservation strategies for marine turtles, an endangered, officially protected species, by providing a better understanding of how they manage these long migrations between egg-laying and feeding areas.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by CNRS.  http://www.wetsand.com

posted by jose E. lopez

now these days sea turtles face a far more greater danger other than extinction, Pollution; companies dumping toxic waste in the earth's oceans forces marine life to change their habitats and find new places to live which involve bitter conditions and unsuitabe places for marine species. Our governments should try to put an end to this and regulate the oil companies to stop this act of violence against our world.