Re: [Paddlewise] Chief Seattle's words

Woof.  It is very difficult for this native Californian (who left in 1966 for 
a cleaner, less crowded part of the West Coast of North America) to 
countenance a view of that cesspool down there which regards it as relatively 
unpolluted.

I lived through the smog alerts of the '50's and '60's, and as a chemist, 
understand the huge investment made in pollution control laws and technology 
which allow the air in the greater LA Basin to be cleaner (emphasis: 
cleanER) than it was in the bad old days of no restrictions on emissions and 
no catalytic converters on autos.  But, not cleaner than it was in the early 
'50's (yeah, I am that old -- and I go back far enough that I surfed on a 
balsa board, and had cherry point breaks to my lonesome!).

To regard what Los Angelenos breath as relatively unpolluted, or to regard 
the quality of surface waters in Southern California as anything near to 
pristine is pure thought buggery.

Chief Seattle's non-words notwithstanding, who questions that worldwide air 
quality and water quality conditions are deteriorating?  Just look around, 
with your memory intact.

Double woof.

--
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR 
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