We were preparing for our trip to Salton Sea area. Our final destination was Salvation Mountain and Slab City. But abandoned cities by salton sea and dead sea itself certainly draw our attention to stop and investigate the area. We decided to avoid a freeway and get to the area through Joshua Tree National Park. We cut across Joshua Tree National park left Mojave desert and came out in Colorado desert right by Salton Sea. As soon as we reached the area i noticed a strange and unpleasant smell. The area had post apocalyptic look with the surrounding structures standing in ruins. The sea was the dull blue of a cataract, surrounded by small volcanoes, bubbling mud pots, and ragged, blank mountains used for bombing practice by the Navy and the Marines . It was hard to imagine that once upon the time this area was known to be a paradise , "a germ in a desert ". What happened here ? why this area that was once flourishing with tourists, new constructions, yacht clubs …show more content…
Chemical-laced dust kicked up from its rapidly receding shoreline contributes to an asthma rate for local children three times higher than the state average. In the recent years because Salton Sea started shrinking and evaporating rapidly that will soon represent even e bigger health problem in Riverside county, Imperial Valley and even Los Angeles. It is predicted that the shoreline will recede by up to several miles, leaving at least 21,120 acres of sediments to the mercy of hot, dry winds. Salton Sea mud contains enough arsenic and selenium to qualify for disposal in a dump reserved for the most toxic of society's trash. Chromium, zinc, lead and pesticides, including DDT, are also in the lake bottom. The Salton Sea, the largest lake in California, encompasses about 380 square miles. It rests in one of the driest places in the nation. Gale-force winds are not
On Wednesday, February 15th, I was able to have the opportunity to listen to Andrew Lipman. Andrew Lipman is the author of The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast. In the novel, he explained the life of Native Americans living in New England and on the coast of Long Island. During this time, most individuals relied on trading natural resources. In order for profit for the resources, the colonists and Native Americans used wampum. Wampum was used as a sacred gift in Native American culture as a peace offering, funerals and marriages. Colonialists had an advantage towards using wampum. They used beads as a commodity for furs. Native Americans relied on canoes for transportation. Canoes can hold up to fifty people.
Up until the early 1900’s, the Salt River flowed without any control or restraints. However, it was a burden for travelers on the trail leading from Prescott to Tucson. In 1911 the Roosevelt Dam was built upstream from Tempe and the flow was reduced until in the late 1930’s when the river ceased to flow altogether. Many people have often wondered what it would be like if the riverbed would once again be filled with water.
Marilyn Propp, a Chicago-based artist, was born in New York. She holds a Bachelor of Art in University of Pennsylvania and Master of Art in University of Missouri-Kansas City. Among other positions such as the co-founder of Anchor Graphics, Propp is also a current adjunct faculty in the Art and Design Department at Columbia College Chicago.
The North Pacific Gyre, home to the north pacific Garbage Patch, occupies the zone of the subtropical High between Haeaii and California. It is the largest and best studied of the gyress, though still fraught with unknowns. It is thought to be the trashiest, though this question is still being studied. Covering more than 20 million square miles, it is the largest on earth and therefor the planet’s largest garbage dumps. (Humes, 2012, p.
If we bemoan the loss of light as the day changes to night we miss the sunset. In her memoirs Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams relates the circumstances surrounding the 1982 rise in the Great Salt Lake as well as her mother’s death from cancer. Throughout the book Williams gets so caught up in preventing her mother’s death that she risks missing the sunset of her mother’s life. However the Sevier-Fremont’s adaptability to changes in nature inspires Terry Tempest Williams to re-evaluate her response to changes in her life.
Utah is known to have the best snow on earth, we have beautiful scenery, relaxation and recreation all within minutes of our front door. But what about that dirty air that seems to last for months? Utah has four of the nations 100 largest oil fields, which produces 1.2% of the nation’s output, with 3,600 active wells. Utah ranks 11th in the nation of oil production, and we have five refineries in the Salt Lake area that can produce 175,500 barrels of oil per day (House,2012). The major effect of these practices, is the effect of air pollution along the Wasatch Front and the serious health consequences on children, teens and adults.
His expertise may attract an array of readers, both newcomers and old-timers. It seems that his intended audience might be those who share his love of the desert and also those who want to know more. The essay is quasi-organized like an educational brochure or an expert interview with an inveterate desert denizen. An unintended audience of course might include the fledgling environmental activists who were emerging in the 1960s to fight for the protection of wilderness. Because of its focus on natural history, the article and the anthology, Desert Solitaire, in which it was published, might...
The Salton Basin , a below-sea-level depression which extends on the north from Palm Springs , California, to the Gulf of California , in the south. The Salton Sea has undergone historic cycles of filling with water and later drying up. The most recent predecessor to the Sea, that being Lake Cahuilla , last filled this area between 300 to 500 years ago and at one time had a surface elevation above sea level. In 1905 the flooding of the Colorado River was accidentally diverted into the Salton though and thus the Salton Sea was born. When the Colorado River floods retreated in 1907, the surface elevation of the Salton Sea slowly began to drop until the 1930�s when agricultural drainage from the Imperial and Coachella Valleys sustained its level. Soon after , this Sea was turned into a state recreation area, wildlife refuge and a sport fishery. To this day, agricultural drainage and run-off is the major source of water inflow to the Salton Sea.
Eliot, T. S., and Christopher Ricks. The Waste Land. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1997. Print.
Although southern beaches in the United States were originally composed of swamp land, sand was added to cover these swamp areas in the 1950s to make them resemble traditional beaches present in other coastal areas of the world, and therefore more appealing for human use and recreation (York). In her poem “Theories of Time and Space,” Trethewey directly references these spaces that have been changed under human influence, giving navigational directions to the reader to “cross over / the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand / dumped on the mangrove swamp – buried / terrain of the past” (11-14). The words “cross over” insinuates a passing by, or traversing of the “man-made beach” without much thought by whoever is traveling over it. The scenario is further illuminated by Trethewey’s use of the word “dumped” when describing the scenery as being “buried terrain of the past,” both holding a negative connotation which hint at something being deliberately concealed under the non-native
When you love the Desert Southwest, sometime, somewhere, you will stumble into the writings of Ed Abbey. Like me, Ed was not born there; he discovered his love of the place while riding a boxcar through it on a trip across the US; I discovered mine on a trip through myself. His writings helped lead me home, for that is what the desert southwest is to me: home. I don’t live there for one simple reason, i.e., I have not yet been able to put myself in the financial situation I need to be in. For now, I visit when I can, mostly during my long vacations at Christmas.
In 1995, an important event marked a victory for the national GreenPeace organization, and for humans alike. The Brent Spar oil installation was not allowed to be dumped into the ocean. The importance of this decision lied in the fact that there were over 600 oil installations that would someday expire just as the Brent Spar had. When the decision was made to not allow the dumping, it set a precident that the other installations would not be allowed to be dumped, either.
The sun dried grass crunched under David’s feet as he reached the mailbox, sweat plastering his golden hair to his forehead. The rural landscape of Shark Bay is bone dry; the lingering heat wave serving as a slap in the face with the wind blowing what is left of his fields into whirlwinds of dirt. His was once a land of luscious green landscape, the soft air turned branches into wind chimes as the trees swayed. These same trees have been bleached by the heat ridden gusts carving tortured sculpture in their trunks. Some might now see this world as one of desolate wasteland but David grew up with the land, this land was a living, growing friend that he knew, loved, and cared for as much as he did his wife and children.
The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems are suffer and become endangered along with lives of people and of marine life. Surfrider Foundation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world's coasts because they are truly irreplaceable. There is also historical evidence of ocean pollution being present in the past, but the problem still lingers today. Heal the Bay discovered that,“Did you know there is a DDT and PCB hot spot off the coast of Palos Verdes? This superfund site (which indicates it's one of the most polluted places in the United States), is left over from a 1930's era chemical plant. Because DDT takes so long to break down in the marine environment, it persists to this day, contaminating certain species of fish. There are also highly polluted sediments in the Long Beach area, a sign of the heavy shipping in the port. Heal the Bay works on developing effective capping and removal plans to keep those toxins from spreading” (Heal the Bay). DDT is still highly concentrated in the South Bay area and still contaminating different species of fish. Even after more than 80 years DDT, a toxic insecticide, is still very concentrated and during upwellings, DDT particles come back up and continue to harm marine life. If humans are careless about what is thrown on the floor or sprayed on lawns, it can lead to disastrous affects when it comes to the condition of the ocean's ecosystems, and can endanger life itself leading to a problem that only we can mend.
...s to take action on contaminated beaches nearby are to speak out, attend public meetings, and/or volunteer. To reduce the contaminants in the ocean, everyone can plant trees, dispose chemicals and pet waste in the correct designated areas, prevent waste from going into seward and storm drains, prevent the clogs in storm drains, organize neighborhood cleanups, recycle paper, plastic, and glass, and maintain cars from oil leaks. To give a helping hand, there are many volunteer programs for people to clean up waste on the shore lines. They have a website where people are able to help out along the coastlines of California near them; www.cacoastkeeper.org/take-action/volunteer. We have created this problem, we should be able to resolve it. Either we change what we’re doing on land, or face the future extinction of many animals and people due to the cause of one species.