Did You Help Heal The Bay?

If you considered how well you lived your life would it be fair to say that you have taken as much as you have given? Have you done your part to deplete as much as necessary to make sure that at some point someone that you know is not going to appreciate one of the things you enjoy?

You know what I’m talking about, fossil fuels, sea bass, swordfish, oil, coal, or even water?

What kind of a question is that? It is almost the militant approach to trying to save the environment. Almost as, if you don’t feel guilty about the way you live your life you might as well write letters of apology to your offspring now.

I watched as a group of volunteers did their part to clean Santa Monica Bay and I wondered to myself why I did not feel the need to join the coastal clean up. Heal the Bay is a great organization and they do their best to make sure the water in Santa Monica bay does not get anymore polluted than it already is. Believe me it can look a bit bad on any given day. No, instead of helping out I was gliding across the water as 12,262 other people helped clean up an ocean that is minutes from my own home and in which I spend an inordinate amount of time both in and on.

The volunteers gathered about 181,000 pounds of debris. My son would call it Marine debris, because he is well versed in the plight of the marine ecosystem and our need to step up and protect it.

Did nothing for me, I was still working on my tan instead of lending some time and energy to fixing the problem.

Can you imagine there have been 99 bacteria limit violations over the past six months? The water is practically glowing and I still listened to Jimmy Buffet from the deck of my sailboat.

Why?

Consider that just a tiny amount under 10 million people live in Los Angels County and the total number of volunteers was 12,262. Seems skewed in the wrong direction but I am sure the numbers were closer to being inflated instead of exaggerated. Do people just not care? Keep in mind that each and everyone of us in Southern California do our very best to influence the biology of the Pacific Ocean that lies so near our communities. We eat, drink and reside in the county and that behavior both directly and indirectly plays a part in what happens in our ocean.

Even though I know that I still did not help. What is wrong with me?

I got me to thinking about simple things that the environmental sect like to talk about like global warming and the decimation of rain forest. I then considered gas prices and food prices. Are there bigger fish to fry in our daily lives and that is precisely why we all seem indifferent to the growing problems that plague our environment?

I hear the celebrities talk about Carbon Footprints and Carbon Credits. Imagine you buy a carbon credit so that you can fly your private jet around the world and have no guilt whatsoever. Meanwhile, the guy who saved for two years to finally get his family to Hawaii is told that he is adding to the problem. But, I guess that is why we usually don’t identify celebrities as national spokespeople for what is right?

These days you can also consider a similar credit that is called avoided deforestation, it works in a similar way and you put down some cash, based on an idea that emissions are some how mitigated because you paid up front to pollute. So does that mean that because my children can possibly appreciate a country with such a diverse number of organisms, such as Madagascar they should start saving so as to help pay some company to protect carbon dioxide emissions if they want to visit it?

Now, I do not profess to understand the entire economics of the situation but why just not pollute? I’m sure that would be a much larger issue so I’ll get back to the real issue.

Heal the Bay. How many members do they have? Considering that we all seemingly pee in the ocean in one way or the another shouldn't we all be proactive and do something about it?

We should. But we don’t and I am not sure why.

Our kids will most likely do it because they will know better but a great deal of us could very well ruin it before they arrive. Organizations like kids for saving the earth, Tree People and The Sierra Club do their part to help the future of this planet but what about those of us that grew up riding in the backseat of station wagons and using aerosol cans?

I glide across the water in my sailboat and I know it should be cleaner. How can one group take on the monumental task of preventing a population from dumping on our environment? Is it a catchy slogan? Is government going to swoop down and save us? Should we encroach upon the freedoms of Angelenos by imposing a “bay credit”. Imagine a small fee to continue using your toilet because it inadvertently makes it way to the bay.

All I know is that whoever is running the ad campaigns for the beer companies and the fast food magnets should offer up a little time to get us to participate in something worthwhile. What I don’t believe we need is a concerted effort at making us feel guilty. I rarely do things out of guilt but I am sure I can be motivated to do plenty when I understand the venture.

Maybe I should install a toll booth in my restroom.

You know, just so that I am ahead of the game.