Natural Perspectives -- Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

The upcoming weekend marks the 32nd anniversary of the first Earth

Day. The Bolsa Chica Conservancy will hold its annual Return of the Terns

event in the parking lot at Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway. The

Bolsa Chica Land Trust and Sierra Club will be there with informational

booths and Aztec dancers. The Bolsa Chica Stewards will plant native

shrubs on the mesa. The Amigos de Bolsa Chica will be at the main Bolsa

Chica Ecological Reserve parking lot. All over town, people will show

their support and love for beaches and wetlands.

That’s the good news. But there’s bad news too. Three recent newspaper

stories tell of ongoing environmental problems.

Huntington State Beach in beleaguered south Huntington Beach is

closed. The bacteria have come back to haunt us. Do you really think that

243-million gallons of sewage a day being dumped just off our shores has

nothing to do with this?

The Planning Commission approved a redevelopment plan for the

southeast section of the city, which includes the Ascon dump site near

the AES power plant. Tar, styrene and other petroleum products sit in

earthen pits, leaching into the soil. Seems the Ascon dump isn’t quite

toxic enough to qualify as a federal super-fund site, so the chemicals

continue to threaten our air and underground water supply. Incredibly

enough, developers have permission to build houses there after a cleanup.

Would you want to live on top of a former toxic dump? Didn’t think so.

The Salton Sea, a huge lake that lies between Indio and Mexicali, is

dying. Although it was created accidentally in 1904 when the Colorado

River poured onto low-lying land through a broken levee, it became an

important refuge for migratory waterfowl and other birds, as well as an

area for recreational fishing. Now the water is so salty that only the

most hardy fish species are left alive, and even they experience massive

die-offs every year. They pile up on the shore in fetid, rotting piles

that turn stomachs of passersby. Every summer, thousands of birds are

sickened in the polluted water. Endangered brown pelicans are brought to

Huntington Beach’s Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center to recuperate.

They’re the lucky ones. The species that aren’t endangered are just left

to die.

These are just a few highlights from last week’s environmental

headlines. But what disturbs us most is news related to global warming.

Since the 1950s, the Arctic ice pack has thinned by more than 40%.

Open water was found over the North Pole in 2000. Some experts believe

that the polar ice cap will disappear entirely in summer by the end of

this century.

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, harp seal pups died by the hundreds of

thousands this spring because their mothers were unable to find ice floes

on which to give birth. The pups live on floes for about two weeks until

they’re able to swim. If there is no ice, there are no seal pups.

Biologists were unable to find a single harp seal pup in the entire Gulf

of St. Lawrence this spring.

Despite the accumulating evidence, some people deny that global

warming exists. Or they minimize the danger and ask what difference a

couple of degrees will make. Well, temperature rise over the next century

is now predicted to be 10 degrees, not two. Just to put that in

perspective, the earth is only five to nine degrees warmer now than it

was during the last Ice Age. Ten degrees of warming over 100 years is an

enormous change. Here’s how it will affect us.

Sea levels will rise two feet during the next century. That means a

high tide that is now 6 feet will become 8 feet, and the really high

tides of 7 feet that we get a couple of times a year will become 9 feet.

Think that won’t affect the homes in Huntington Harbor and Surfside? Add

that to the water from a winter storm, and you won’t be driving down

Pacific Coast Highway for days afterward. Then you’ll get to pay for

storm damage cleanup.

More intense storms brought on by global warming will mean more

erosion and accelerated loss of wetlands. Loss of the Sierra snow pack

will mean less water for drought-stricken Southern California. Hotter

days will mean more smog, and that will mean more respiratory and cardiac

illnesses, and more deaths due to heat stroke, heart attack and

respiratory failure.

Back in 1970, the first Earth Day focused attention on environmental

concerns such as air and water pollution. It woke up establishment

politicians. They promptly passed landmark environmental legislation: the

Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. That

was a good start, but the fight is far from over. In addition to ongoing

issues, we must now deal with global warming.

Buildup of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and

nitrous oxide contribute to global warming. Tragically, the federal

government has done nothing to stem the continuing increase of greenhouse

gases produced by consumption of fossil fuels.

In California, passenger vehicles contribute 40% to our greenhouse gas

production. Fortunately, our State Assembly isn’t as shortsighted as the

federal government. The Assembly recently passed a bill that will limit

greenhouse gas emissions in passenger vehicles, including sport utility

vehicles and light-duty trucks. Our 67th District Assemblyman, Tom Harman

(R-Huntington Beach), cast the deciding vote that passed the bill and

sent it on to the Senate.

This Earth Day 2002, join in the celebration of Mother Earth. By all

means, bring the children. They will be the ones most affected by global

warming. As our generation learned from Earth Day 1970, today’s children

need to learn about the environmental problems that will face them.

* VIC LEIPZIG PhD and LOU MURRAY PhD are Huntington Beach residents

and environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 [email protected] .