August 30th, 1998

From A Distance The World Looks Great
By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight

From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man
Nanci Griffith

(Photo by Jackie Giuliano; Earth by NASA)

I took a break from writing this afternoon and went for a walk on the beach with my wife. It was lovely. The Sun was low on the horizon, the sky was blue and clear, the air was warm, and the wind blew the salt spray gently in my face. The smell of salt water brings back so many memories, memories of how the beach has always been a place of peace to me, a place where I could quietly reflect and contemplate without being judged or criticized.

But with those awarenesses were other thoughts as I saw all the boats in the water, all the sickly looking birds all around, all the trash at my feet and the large oil tanker a couple of miles out.

I know that the tanker is three times the size of the Exxon Valdez. It is parked about a mile off-shore at buoy #8 and during a year's time, a tanker that size will off-load its oil into an underwater pipe in a very risky operation as many as 181 times. The EPA has said that there is a 95 percent chance of a major oil spill in Santa Monica Bay because of Chevron's dangerous practice. I walked on.

The water was so blue. The breaking waves were lovely. People frolicked in the water. Children played on the sand.

But I know that the water is terribly poisoned. The signs posted next to the stormwater outfall give a chilling message: "Warning! Storm Drain Water May Cause Illness. No Swimming." Yet right over the storm drain sits a lifeguard tower.

The lifeguard positioned the signs that separated the swimmers and surfers right next to the stormwater warning signs. His signs directed the swimmers right into the outflow of the storm drain. I desperately wanted to tell the children swimming to get out. They were going to get sick. But I didn't.

I've been told before not to be so negative. People don't always want to hear about the darkness. It is frightening to contemplate. Acknowledging the darkness also means that you must take personal responsibility for your contribution to the problem. In order to do this, you will have to drive less, fly less, eat differently and consume less. These are treasonous words in our consumer-based, feel good culture. So I looked away and continued walking.

As I looked off into the distance, I saw the lovely coastline, The sandy beaches curve like clouds as the waves lap upon the shore.

But I know that 200 feet below the surface of the water is a pipe that carries the sewage of 4 million people and 100,000 businesses in the Los Angeles area. Fifty percent of that sewage is currently untreated. The other half is treated to the "partial secondary" level, still brimming with bacteria and parasites. Nearly 400 million gallons of this sewage water per day is dispersed between five and six miles out into an undersea canyon. No one at the treatment plant or in the City of Los Angeles government dares speak of slowing development or encouraging water conservation. Those words are not allowed. So I walked on.

Most of the boats in the water come from Marina del Rey a couple of miles down the coast. It is the largest small boat harbor in the world. Built on the site of once rich wetlands - the city called them "mosquito infested mudflats" - thousands of boats are moored and fueled and painted.

(Otter pictures from Jimmy's Sea Otter Page at http://www.silcom.com/~njhua/otter/otter1.html)

As I thought of all those boats and their paint, I thought about what I had learned earlier today - that significant numbers of the 2,114 remaining Southern Sea Otters in California are dying. They are dying because they are being poisoned by tin compounds, tributyltin (TBT) and its byproducts. This chemical, since the 1960s, has been used as an "antifouling agent" in marine paint to prevent barnacles and slime from attaching to boats and aquaculture nets.

The plight of the Southern Sea Otter, first discussed in previous Healing Our World columns (link here) is a powerful reminder of the impact of our actions as individuals and as a culture on our world. It may also be a portent of things to come - the collapse of our life support systems on Earth and the loss of our health because of rampant consumerism and a wanton lack of appreciation for the connections we all share.

The Southern Sea Otter is a "keystone" species. Without it, the health of the nearshore ecosystem would suffer greatly.

The giant kelp forests in which the otter lives are the breeding grounds for many ocean fishes and other sea life. Without the otter, sea urchins and other kelp predators would destroy the kelp in short order.

Investigations into the cause of death of 247 sea otters found along the California coast revealed that 40 percent of them died from infectious diseases caused by parasites, bacteria, and fungi. This high percentage suggests that the otters lacked a resistance to infections, possibly because of damaged immune systems. ALL the dead otters had TBTs in their bodies, chemicals whose presence suppresses the immune system.

Although the government banned the use of TBT paint on small boats in 1989 because of the connection between TBT and diseases in bottlenose dolphins in the Atlantic, it can still be used on boats larger than 25 feet in length. The chemical is already deeply imbedded in the ecosystem, residing in bottom dwelling animals like sea urchins, scallops, and mussels - all part of the sea otter's diet.

The otters' plight is our own. The oceans are the lifeblood of our Earth. From a distance, everything looks OK. But we have to get on our knees and look closely at what we are doing - and pray for forgiveness.

RESOURCES

1. Read articles about the sea otter deaths and the connection to TBT at http://www.yoto.com/dailynews/1998/04/041498/seaotter.asp and http://www.emtc.nbs.gov/http_data/nwhc/warroom/otter.html and http://members.aol.com/adrcnet/marmamnews/98041501.html

2. Visit the National Wildlife Health Center for details on the toxic threats to wildlife and us at http://www.emtc.nbs.gov/nwhchome.html

3. A thorough discussion of TBTs and sea otter mortality can be found in the May 1, 1998 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 32, No. 9, by Drs. Kannan, Guruge, Thomas, Tanabe, and Giesy. You can look for it at a university library or purchase an on-line copy at http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag/jtoc.cgi?esthag/32/9

4. The Baykeeper organization keeps watch on waterways throughout the nation. Visit their Santa Monica, California site at http://home.earthlink.net/~baykeeper/ and support their work.

5. See the "report card" for the water quality of Southern California beaches, maintained by the Surfrider foundation, at http://www.surfrider.org/wqjump.htm

6. View some amazing facts about our oceans at http://www.surfrider.org/cfmany.html#marine pollution

7. Learn about he Southern California stormwater drainage system at http://www.gatekeeper.com/stormwater/information/information.html

8. Over 1.5 billion dollars is being spent on enlarging the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant so that it can handle one billion gallons of our wastewater every day. This will allow the Plant, they say, to serve the needs of the city for the next 100 years. After that, who knows? Visit the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant at http://www.sciarc.edu/pages/LAAC/personal/AM/AM_hypr.html

9. Read all the lyrics to Nanci Griffith's powerful song, "From A Distance," at http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/1752/album11.htm#froma

10. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them to outlaw the use of TBT and to work to get it out of our web of life. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

11. Learn about the issues. Seek out books on the subject. A good source for used (and new) books is Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon at http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/associate?assoc_id=212 where you will find a wonderful alternative to the massive chain bookstores taking over the market.

12. Bookmark this website. Visit it often for ways we can all Heal Our World.