Letters to the Editor

The Smell of Excess

Bob Hazard in his recent column (“Election Intrigue in Montecito,” MJ # 25/29) described me as “a noted investigative reporter [and] an anti-cannabis crusader,” which is not exactly the case. 

Like the majority of those in Santa Barbara County, I voted for Prop 64 (and, in my case even Das Williams). Then we learned quite belatedly that Williams’ grand plan was establishing Santa Barbara County as the global capital for the industrial production of marijuana, with its very own “Cannabis Czar.”

Bob Hazard, whom I consider a well-intentioned friend, names supporters of Santa Barbara School Board VP Laura Capps, but did so without confirming directly with them for this column.

He points out Capps’ backer Sara Miller McCune, but omits Williams’ major donor, Peter Sperling, the cannabis champion who backed Prop 64. He also left out a supporter of Das Williams: himself. According to a recent article in the Santa Barbara Independent, the Montecito Water Board Director Ken Coates has criticized his proposal of a community services district as “a poor man’s cityhood…” Hazard’s premise in all this is helping Das get a win of some sort that will help him get reelected. If that is the case, it is something Bob Hazard needs to disclose when he enumerates the candidates’ supporters.

Again, the issue here is the industrial cultivation of marijuana on an unprecedented scale. In Humboldt County, a grower must have 1,120 acres to cultivate just eight acres. In most of SB County, you can grow hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of marijuana, which has a horrific stink and is even more water-intensive crop than almonds. Think about just that in our drought-stricken region. 

Then think about the recent comments of one major avocado grower to the Carpinteria City Council, who said that the negative impacts of marijuana are so significant, that if changes are not forthcoming, “we won’t be having an Avocado Festival next year.” 

Think about the devastating damage done to our wine industry and vintners, or to tourists who may not want to go to beaches reeking of skunk, or Carpinteria’s schools and the folks living anywhere from Shepherd’s Mesa to Foothill to Padaro Lane-Sand Point who smell it inside their homes and several of our schools.

How would Montecito feel about that? Well, if and when the pot growers ramp up into growing millions of adult female plants, don’t be surprised if the odors waft right out of the greenhouse vents (twice daily) and hover over the upper village and Coast Village Road.

What has happened in Santa Barbara can only be described as a Cannabis Coup, as documented by an LA Times’ in-depth investigation and some terrific local reporting.

So yes, folks are pissed at having to spend millions of dollars on attorneys, appeals and their precious time, to fight this piece of legislative idiocy and the billion-dollar-Cannabis Lobby, which evidently works hand-in-glove with Sups. Williams and Lavagnino.

Many of us in the Carpinteria Valley, in Santa Ynez, and parts of all five districts have faced the uncertainty of whether to sell our homes and move away because of the odors and respiratory issues that now abound.

So no, we are not crusaders, but yes, we would like to continue to live here.

Ann Louise Bardach
Carpinteria

HTL an Endorsement Free Zone

Re: Bob Hazard’s article (as referenced above): May we please advise one and all that Hillary Hauser, synonymous with Heal the Ocean, does not endorse (including public “support” of) political candidates?

Thank you,

Hillary Hauser
Carpinteria

More on Weed

As they evolved, plants such as poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and marijuana, developed toxic and malodorous chemical compounds in their foliage, including hydrogen cyanide and nitrous oxide, to deter animals and insects from foraging on them. That’s why the marijuana plantations that have sprouted up in Carpinteria smell so bad. Passing motorists can’t help but notice the pungent odors wafting across the freeway.

Now that “recreational marijuana” is legal here in California, it might serve a purpose to remember that Osama bin Laden and all nineteen of his 9/11 skyjackers were born and raised to maturity in Arab cultures where smoking marijuana in their bongs has always been legally and socially acceptable. As such, it’d be safe to presume that they all intoxicated themselves at social gatherings and/or simply to satisfy their addiction.

The result: Almost three thousand innocent American men, women, and children, were reduced to grease spots beneath hundreds of tons of smoldering steel and concrete at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. So much for pharmaceutical side effects.

And such is the magnitude of the tragedy that is now perpetrated on untold millions of our unsuspecting young people by those who are profiting thereby, as well as by the irresponsible government officials who are giving them license to do so in order to collect the tsunami of marijuana tax revenues. Toxic collusion, if you will.

All of their fingerprints will hereafter be left on the tombstones of those who meet their fate in marijuana-related traffic accidents and other such mishaps.

William G. Lockwood
Santa Barbara

When the Wind Blows

Why has no one curtailed the arbitrary and unhealthy practice of Caltrans at East Valley Road next to the partially constructed Parra Grande bridge on a two-acre parcel? Caltrans has for over one year stockpiled contaminated dirt from mudslides into an enormous two-story high uncovered mess, right next to the creek bed. When the wind blows, this filth blows around and many residents have had serious medical emergencies of ear, nose, and throat, due to Caltrans’ unhealthy behavior. Not to mention the decline of property values in the area due to this eyesore.

Environmentally, all the trees and plants have been affected with a thick coating of this contaminated poison, which kills or impedes growth.

East Valley Road
Hot Springs Road
Resident

(Editor’s note: We don’t know about the two-story-high stink-pile, but all of us eagerly await the re-opening of East Valley Road between Hot Springs and Sycamore Canyon – J.B.)

Shore to Ship

Thank you for the excellent article in the new Montecito Journal glossy edition (Summer/Fall 2019). It sure made me want to travel by ship again, and great areas to visit!

Jean Von Wittenburg
Montecito

A Public Service

Homeowners with property next to the roads and streets should cut back their foliage, as cars and trucks are having to drive too close to the center strip because those plants stick out too far on the road, putting everyone in danger.

And, cut back hard, as the growth this year is really tremendous.

Gene Tyburn
Montecito

Consensus Science

In the “Scary Stats” letter of the last issue (MJ # 25/29) the writer complains that “…few people take the time to fact check statements that contradict common sense or consensus science…” 

Shall I presume that “consensus-science” is a reference to Galileo’s discovery of four moons orbiting Jupiter? His radical observations flew in the face of the heliocentric theory that Earth was the center of the universe and it nearly cost him his life. Using the phrase “consensus-science” to explain uncontrollable, transient, sun-driven temperature changes over our planet’s surface is like a lynch mob exercising its rights as a “pure democracy”. It all makes sense, unless you are the object of their “common sense”.

It was the US Forest Service (not climate deniers) who removed the Glacier National Park (GNP) signs that incorrectly predicted the disappearance of the Grinnell and Jackson Glacier by 2020.

Many scientists agree that the temperature of our third rock may be increasing, however, more than 31,000 experts, including 79 university and 79 NASA astronomers, are signatories of the PetitionProject.org who agree that “…humans are not responsible…” for the change. More importantly, that we are not capable of implementing policies or tactics (short of a nuclear winter) which will influence global temperatures.

The “Scary Stats” writer proclaimed that 18 of the warmest years on record have occurred within the past nineteen years. For this statistic to be valid, every location (and politician) on earth should have been part of the survey. Instead of using a “garbage-in-garbage-out” chart from NASA supposedly depicting “satellite data” showing global temperatures from 800,000 years ago, readers might want to visit www.phys.org/news/2018-11-climate-scientists-wrong.html. 

If we are going to cite specific locations like “…Van Nuys reaching 117 degrees last year…”, let’s remember that the hottest temperatures every recorded were not in the past five years, but on July 10, 1913 (134 ºF: Death Valley, CA), Sep 13, 1922 (Azizya, Libya) and that around 2 pm on June 17, 1859 a Coastal Survey vessel just offshore from Goleta Beach recorded a temperature of 133 ºF.

For the interesting timeline on how data from the original East Anglia College Global Warming was altered, Google climategate2.0.

Our planet’s radiative energy balance has teeter-tottered for millions (not thousands) of years, long before flatulent cows, satellites (launched by toxic fuming rockets), or electric cars (powered by coal/petro/nuke power plants). According to the USGS, there are about 1,500 active volcanoes worldwide, only 500 of which have erupted in recorded history. On May 18, 1980, Mt. St. Helens injected heat-trapping (or reflecting) ash, noxious gas and aerosols into the atmosphere that eventually circled the globe. In 1815, the eruption of Mt. Tambora, caused the summer of 1816 to be cancelled in Europe and North America. China, India and other countries refuse to control their own industrial emissions, plastics, toxins and volcanoes, so why is America held solely responsible for global pollutions? It seems to be easier to blame homo sapiens for everything instead of admitting that there are things (hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes), which are beyond mortal control.

Instead of trying to throw spit wads at the battleship called Mother Nature, maybe we could begin researching ways to extinguish the Pacific Ring of Fire, slow down plate tectonics and develop gigantic corks to plug volcanoes. Should 33,000 scientists be identified as “climate-deniers” and be forced to wear yellow arm patches, or be subject to public humiliation because they disagree with a politically driven hoax? I wonder what Galileo would say about these scary stats?

Dale Lowdermilk
Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: I don’t know if we can go along on this ride with you, Dale. If one looks at Earth from space, the really thin veneer of our “atmosphere” is striking. It’s not difficult to see how nine billion – and growing, daily… – humans continuing to make a mess of things could negatively affect that wispy layer of protection. While we agree it has become a “religion” for many and that not all the facts are in, we really do need to pay more attention. – J.B.)

The Sky is Falling

Henry Louis Mencken: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Tony Heller exposes the fraud behind climate change and global warming on his website realclimatescience.com: “In 1998,” he reports, “NASA showed 1934 as the hottest year on record in the U.S., and declining temperatures for the rest of the century. They have since rewritten the data to eliminate the post-1930s cooling. 1998 was recorded as one-degree Fahrenheit cooler than 1934, and now it is warmer…”

At realclimatescience.com, Mr. Heller provides scores of proofs of fraud and deception, including charts, maps, videos, historical articles and photographs which expose the myths of record heat/cold, vanishing glaciers & polar ice caps, record tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, sea level rise, etc.

On July 21, 2019 Mr. Heller debunked the latest heat wave hysteria promulgated by the Union of Concerned Scientists, National Geographic, et al. “The likelihood of hot July weather in the Midwest has plummeted since the 1930s, with all recent years being among the coolest on record.” His attendant graphs, charts, and historical articles elaborate: https://realclimatescience.com/2019/07/quantifying-heatwave-hysteria/

Lest you believe Mr. Heller is a one-off kook, here are a few more (among thousands) reputable skeptics: Patrick Moore (Greenpeace), John Coleman (Weather Channel), Joe Bastardi (Meteorologist), Anthony Watts (WattsUpWithThat), John R. Christy (Professor of Atmospheric Science University of Alabama), Judith A. Curry (Climatologist at Georgia Institute of Technology), Richard S. Lindzen (1983-2013 Professor of Meteorology at M.I.T.)) and Bill Gray-R.I.P. (PhD William Gray formerly Colorado State U).

Because of their contrarian views, most of them have suffered the wrath and fury of the alarmist community. Google their names and mixed with truths you’ll find extreme bias and sophistry posted by devout believers and/or the misinformed. 

Climate Change has become a pseudo-religion embraced by zealots. Some have theorized that with the decline of religion, humanity’s need for a “cause” has fallen upon the environment and climate change. Either you’re a well-received believer or a despicable heretic, worthy of stoning.

Steve King
Carpinteria