The Ocean's on Fire

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.

                                                                                                -- Lao Tsu

Wave crashes against rock cliff on West Cliff Drive

On Thursday throngs of lookie-loos flocked to Santa Cruz to see the big waves. Some even jumped into the water believing they could surf the monster waves, part of a winter swell that arrived following an extreme -- or king -- tide when the coastal surf recedes and rises as much as 6-ft. That's 12-ft all told. Add big waves that bring enough water to cover a 75-ft beach and you get the picture.

The forecast of these conditions came with a warning to stay out of the water and be cautious of getting too close. The forecast worked as an advertisement, a promotion, for many to come find out how close they could get.

Humans.

We can't help ourselves.

There were the usual sirens and rescues. No drownings. Many got soaked by crashing waves that spilled onto roads and walkways.

So it goes. Today another major swell from the Pacific Ocean is pounding our coastline.

This could be the new normal, according to marine scientists. Our oceans are rising and getting warmer as Arctic glaciers melt and the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide, created by burning of fossil fuels.

"Sea level rise is the heart of climate change," according to Mark Merrifield, who heads the Scripps Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations.

Facts like these run through Rosanna Xia's recently published book, California Against the Sea, Visions for our vanishing coastline. Xia is an award-winning environmental reporter for the LA Times. Her well researched and beautifully written work goes into detail about several coastal communities and wetlands throughout California that currently face critical decisions regarding the issues of coastal protection, private property rights and public access to beaches.

Xia (pronounced sheeyah) stopped by Bookshop Santa Cruz recently where she read passages from her acclaimed book. She was accompanied by Gary Griggs, coastal geologist and professor at UC Santa Cruz, and Charles Lester, former head of the California Coastal Commission. We meet both men in the pages of Xia's reporting.

The poignancy of her book is easily acknowledged on days like I describe above. Man has been building seawalls since the ancient Egyptians. These man-made barriers invariably succumb to Mother Ocean. What is happening up and down the coast of California is also taking place around the world, including Venice, Italy. 

"The oceans have absorbed the heat equivalent to seven Hiroshima atomic bombs detonating each second, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year," according to one thermal scientist.

Xia's investigations are about how communities on the California coast are dealing with sea-level rise, from Imperial Beach south of San Diego, to Laguna Beach, San Simeon, Santa Cruz, Pacifica and San Francisco. What to do? Fight or flight? It's a mixed bag, especially when dealing with wealthy property owners whose precious investments, second-homes are at risk. 

What is government's responsibility? Who bears the enormous financial burden? Especially when over (undetermined) time, Lao Tsu's prophetic words will become reality. These issues and battles and the people involved make Xia's story more compelling and relatable.

Humans have historically wanted to live by water and the ocean. Native people, such as the Chumash who inhabited coastal areas near Santa Barbara, for thousands of years lived in harmony with the coast and wetlands, eventually migrating from a sinking island (Channel Island) to settle on the mainland. They never built seawalls and understood and respected the coastal eco systems.

When the Spaniards arrived in the 18th Century, they had different ideas. They viewed the natives as uncivilized. With the arrival of the railroad and industry, train tracks and concrete spread to the beaches. During this period of climate calmness -- the Pacific Decadal Oscillation -- generous winds pulled the warmer water offshore. "Sea level suppression" lasted about a century.

Developers sprang at the untouched opportunity, paving over sand dunes, wetlands and even rivers to build as close to the water as possible, and extract the highest prices for said locations. "Seaside cottages morphed into glass mansions. Californians, captivated by this unconquered coast, kept building right to the water's edge," writes Xia.

It's safe to say that Pacific Decadal Oscillation has ended. El Ninos (warm ocean currents) are happening more often and typically bring stormy rainy conditions. The weather is as fickle as we humans. I have a strong feeling that we are closely related. It's our atmosphere, after all. Time is all we got, and many beaches flowing south.

And a rising burning ocean as a new seaside attraction! 

Happy New Year!

On a related note, Santa Cruz friend Dan Haifley explains the latest progress of a new marine sanctuary on the California coast, and how, if you're a state resident, a simple letter to California's two U.S. Senators can help push things forward. See story below.

https://lookout.co/ocean-protection-activism-biodiversity-fighing-climate-change-lets-make-2024-a-year-for-the-ocean/

How Do You Know?

PHOTO:KCS

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

                                -- Leonard Cohen, 1988

You don't have to go

too far to find out, because everybody knows. They will tell you, if you want to hear or not. Whether it's the best place to eat or the worst place to go, everybody knows.

Turn on the television, talking heads all know, who's being dishonest or has his head screwed on too tight. That's right. This is wrong. He's a bully. She's in way over her head. You might as well go to bed, because everybody knows.

You think you might know, but you may not have heard, about this or that or what happened last night, or in court yesterday or on the playing field Sunday. You might as well yield to the facts, that everybody knows.

I suppose, since we have all the info, there's no need to go. See everyone moving in the same direction as fast as they can, those drivers know. They may be texting outside their lane, it's a common refrain, they're staying in the know.

Read the signs, listen to the radio, talk to your neighbor, plug in, download, upload, listen to the podcast, ping me, sing to me, watch the screen in front of your face. There's a race to stay in the know. What you don't know might hurt you, you know.

Stay abreast is best, that's the test to remain informed so you know. There's more to know than meets the eye, don't cry, just look around and sigh, cause everybody knows.

Go to Yelp for the latest dope, check Facebook, TikTok your Apple Watch clock. Hope you're on track, don't slack or stop or cop to being uninformed, cause everybody knows. 

Opinions are cheap but reap the reward of staying on top of the next wave that could save your ass from drowning in the pool. You know, I know, they know. Everybody knows. Stay in da flow.

Everything's out of hand, understand, listen to the band. It's a superstition mission. Been there done that, repeat, reboot, retool, reward yourself with the scoop du jour. Go trans, be bi-nary not a canary in the YouTube.

Vaccines will save your life or kill you, depending on what you know or don't know or who you talk to or what you've read or been fed. It's in your head. 

Everybody knows.

Wiggle your toes.

Blow your nose.

Wear cool clothes.

It all shows.

Everybody knows THAT...  they don't know diddly.

Warning: this blog post may be hazardous to your well-being and cause unusual bleeding or strange discharges while you're sleeping. Don't read right before bedtime or after meals. Talk to your local shaman or astrologist if you have questions. What you don't know could prove harmful or even fatal if you are older than 50. This post will self-destruct 15 minutes after you read it. If you believe that you need to see a psychotherapist, or at least consider the benefits of AI. Thank you.

Give Peace a Chance

Photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono by Annie Leibovitz, taken on Dec. 8 1980, for cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. John insisted on having Yoko in the photo, the final recorded while he was alive. 

December 8, 1980 we had been living in our recently-purchased home on Walk Circle for four months. Just enough time to feel comfortable and at home. Barbara had moved in with us — Molly, Vanessa and me. We had fallen in love with Barbara, who had been our neighbor across the street.

She and I were in our tiny, outmoded kitchen with a purplish red linoleum floor, laughing about its ugliness, when Molly, 11, burst in from the front room where background noise of Monday night football played on the TV, highlighted intermittently by the loquacious Howard Cossell.

"John Lennon died!" said Molly . "You knew him, didn't you, Dad?"

Everyone knew John Lennon, the eldest and most out-spoken member of the Beatles.

The tenor of the evening changed as we gathered to listen to the shocking news.

John was dead at 40, shot by a disturbed fan. More than a founding member with Paul McCartney of the Beatles, John had stepped out as a peace activist while challenging conventional religious beliefs, throwing himself into Primal Therapy articulating his personal journey through art and music. He had left the Beatles. Some blamed his new girlfriend-cum-wife Yoko Ono. The couple had broken up and got back together and recently released a new LP, Double Fantasy, that celebrated their new son, Sean, and their newfound domestic life. He sounded happy again.

Barbara and I had adopted the "starting over" theme, from the album's most popular song (Just Like) Starting Over, since we were starting new as a family living together. My single-fatherhood was over. I had a partner and the girls had a mother.

Double Fantasy was mostly panned by the music critics, who viewed the music as flat and uninspired. Domestic bliss didn't say much to a wider world. I disagreed. I found the songs -- (Just Like) Starting Over and Watching the Wheels -- soothing, heartfelt and contemplative.

His death reminded me of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert "Bobby" Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King, figureheads of a more inclusive, peaceful world. 

I wrote a piece expressing these feelings for the weekly newspaper, The Santa Cruz News, under publisher Lee May, for which I was editor. I dropped a hard copy (original typed story) into the mail addressed to Rolling Stone Magazine. The very first issue of Rolling Stone featured a front page interview with John Lennon, written by the magazine's founder Jan Wenner.

The holiday season was upon us. The following Saturday at the weekly Santa Cruz Flea Market at Soquel Drive In, then a popular gathering place for the local population, when the clock struck 12-noon a voice over the PA system asked those present to observe a few moments of silence. John's song Imagine was played. 

Imagine all the people living life in peace... It's easy if you try… 

It was fitting. You could feel the hopefulness in the air, see it on the faces, sense that another life had been stolen, traded for a better world.

On a January evening, with a nip of cold in the air, and the post-holiday slump cooling our spirits, our phone rang, the familiar harsh treble of a mid-century modern telephone call.

"Hello."

"Is this Kevin Samson?"

"Yes." He must have looked me up in the phone book. Remember those?

"This is Gary Shapiro at Cymbaline Records. I really like what you wrote in Rolling Stone."

I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Come down to the store. I want to meet you. I'll give you a copy."

Sure enough, there was a truncated version of what I had written for The News and dropped into the mail without a further thought.

My letter wrapped around a telegram (another relic) that Yoko had sent to Rolling Stone.

The contents of my letter are expressed above, in the words of a man, today a grandfather, looking back 43 years, not much different than what I wrote then:

"It made me happy to see John happy. It makes me sad to know he's gone. We had better take a long look at ourselves before something like this happens again."

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will be as one.