All posts by Peter Terezakis

Sacred Sky Sacred Earth: Meditation at Scripps Knoll

Sacred Sky Sacred Earth: Meditation at Scripps Knoll • 2 pm to 4 pm • February 25, 2012
Sacred Sky Sacred Earth: Meditation at Scripps Knoll • Click above for a larger image

LA JOLLA, CA — A grand opening celebration for the San Diego-Scripps Marine Conservation Area, and the new entrance gate to the Knoll (upland) area of the Scripps Coastal Reserve, part of the University of California National Reserve System, will be held Saturday, February 25, 2012. The event is free and open to the public. Please note: There is no parking at the reserve. Free parking and shuttle bus service will operate from the UC San Diego Pangea parking structure at the corner of North Torrey Pines Road and Pangea Drive from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Park in the structure and catch the shuttle at the curb on Pangea Drive.

Docent led tours begin at 1 pm. UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will preside over the ribbon cutting for the gate at 2 pm. From 2:30 to 4 pm you are invited to experience Peter Terezakis’s Sacred Sky Sacred Earth: Meditation at Scripps Knoll. Begun in 1995, this event is part of a series of inter-active, site-specific, temporary art works which call attention to our earth and sky. Meditation at Scripps Knoll will require walking around the reserve and will include performances by UC San Diego alumni from the Department of Music, the Department of Theatre and Dance, and special guest artists from Bali, Great Britain, and Mexico. For more information, visit http://www.terezakis.com

The Scripps Coastal Reserve provides excellent opportunities to examine the dramatic land-sea interface in Southern California. Commanding a view for 50 kilometers (30 miles), the precipitous upland portion of the reserve, located adjacent to the UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), is topped by a grassy knoll and bounded by steep coastal canyons. The reserve’s rugged coastal bluffs plummet 100 meters (328 feet) to the ocean surface. From there, the marine portion of the reserve plunges to a depth of 227 meters (745 feet) below sea level into the tributaries of the Scripps and La Jolla submarine canyons.

The Scripps Pier juts 320 meters (1,050 feet) into the Pacific Ocean, providing access to rich, deep, underwater habitats. Plant and animal communities at the reserve have adapted to the various stresses of life at the marine margin, such as shifting tides, sand migration, inundation, and desiccation. This site’s highly diverse, terrestrial and marine reserve habitats include coastal sage scrub, succulent scrub, disturbed grassland, coastal strand, rocky reef, sandy beach, submerged sandy plain, pier pilings, submarine canyon and associated ledges.

The University of California Natural Reserve System is a network of protected natural areas throughout California. Its 37 sites include more than 750,000 acres, making it the largest university-administered reserve system in the world. Most major state ecosystems are represented, from coastal tidepools to inland deserts, and lush wetlands to Sierra Nevada forests. The reserves also serve as a gateway to more than a million acres of public lands. Founded in 1965 to provide undisturbed environments for research, education, and public service, the Natural Reserve System contributes to the understanding and wise stewardship of the earth.

For more information, please visit http://nrs.ucsd.edu/scripps.htmlhttp://www.facebook.com/scrippscoastalreserve or call 858-534-2077.

Vote to shut down San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

Not surprising, but it appears that our government has succumbed once again to the influence of big business.

A well-intended initiative has been distorted by an extremely biased report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office which considers every imaginable and invented negative fiscal impact that might come from closing down our two nuclear power plants in California. Little consideration at all is given to the devastating effects an accident at either of these plants would have on our economy.

A poll in the OC Register (intentionally or not) uses these distortions to sway public opinion against closure of these plants. You can help to correct this imbalance by voting YES right now before the poll closes. You should see a place to vote just below the short article, right before the Comments section. There should be two circular buttons (not triangles) which will allow you to vote. Please be aware that you may need to refresh the screen to see it properly, as this has been a problem reported by others.

Please send this request to all your contacts. Thanks for being part of the solution. (Current voting is at 444 YES to 583 NO)

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/11/23/poll-would-you-vote-to-shut-down-san-onofre/139673/

Fracked in Oklahoma

Petroleum industry spin at Scientific American?
Possibly yes or probably not?

I recently came across an article referenced on the KPBS website which I found troubling. What stopped me was the contrasting, definitive “probably not” which could just as easily been “possibly, yes.”

Mr. Charles Q. Choi’s article is uncomfortably reminiscent of the studies financed by the tobacco industry which claimed that cigarette smoking was not harmful.

The author neglected to mention the number of fracking sites, as well as the amount of – and rate at which – fracking material is injected. That the compounds within the fracking material are flat-out poisonous, is another conversation.

According to testimony by the governor of Oklahoma
this past week over 95,000 well sites in the state had been fracked.

According to Dr. Robert Myers compelling article 4-7 million gallons of fracking compound are injected at high pressure into our earth for each site.

Using a conservative 5,000,000 as a working number, that’s about 475,000,000,000 gallons of material, at an injection rate of, “up to 100 MPa (15,000 psi) and 265 L/s (100 barrels per minute)” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing).

There is no disputing the number of earthquakes which accompany fracking operations. I am certain that many readers would like to see a list of Mr. Choi’s referenced seismologists (and their employers) as an addendum to this article.

In a recent related article, seismologist Austin Holland is quoted as having said, “”You have an earthquake that occurs, and that changes the stress ever so slightly next to it, and so another earthquake occurs, and it’s just sort of like a zipper unzipping. It kind of just goes down the line.”

Dr. Randy Keller’s statement, “We have an unstable situation here, and it’s one reason why oil and gas is available here in the first place,” raises a host of other questions.

Leaving the spectre of long-term poisoning of our nation’s fresh water to wall street speculators, tree-huggers, and hippie-environmentalists, it would be a pity if Scientific American was discovered to be skewing facts in order to be a public relations venue for the oil and gas industries.

Oklahoma Earthquakes for the Last 30 days
Click for Oklahoma Earthquake map

Tell The FDA to Label Genetically Engineered Food

Unlabeled, Untested, Unknown, and we're eating it!
Tell FDA to Label Genetically Engineered Food

It seems like a science-fiction plot: Geneticists modifying the food that people eat and no one knows that they’re eating it. Corrupt politicians in the pockets of lobbyists and multi-national corporations have decided to use the population of the United States for testing.

The once widely prescribed drug Thalidomide did not not begin to reveal problems until women who had taken the compound began giving birth to deformed children.

Monsanto, General Mills, and other corporate citizens know that given the choice, consumers prefer to purchase non-genetically manipulated foods and food products.

Click the image, sign the petition and support your right to know what you are eating and what you are feeding your loved ones.

BP: ‘An accident waiting to happen’ – Fortune

Click the image below to for a “must read” on the worst oil spew to date.

BP: 'An accident waiting to happen'

With President Obama’s administration wholesale parceling out of Arctic region drilling permits, the history of the Deepwater Horizon may be prologue for an event which would impact the foundation of our planet’s ocean food chain.

“When Tony Hayward took over BP in 2007 – after the oil giant had experienced a series of calamitous accidents – he vowed that safety would be his top priority. So how did he come to preside over one of the worst industrial disasters in history? A Fortune investigation reveals a saga of hubris, ambition, and a safety philosophy that focused too much on spilled coffee and not enough on drilling disasters.

By Peter Elkind and David Whitford with Doris Burke”

11-11-11: Veteran’s Day 2011

Today is Veteran’s Day. The West has a lot to be thankful for… I have a lot to be thankful for.

The fact that people do not venerate our heroes from every single conflict can be traced back to some very bad PR from LIFE magazine during the war in Vietnam. Out of the number of WWII veterans I have known, two remain standing. Albert Miglio is one of these men. Artist, friend, New Yorker, combat veteran, he also possesses a unique appreciation for the gifts of Greek civilization. My recent visit to the war museum in Crete has also provided food for reflection on this day.

Click the image below for a PDF of truly unforgettable imagery taken by a forgotten LIFE Magazine photographer, prior to the involvement of the United States in World War II.

I also appreciate the effectiveness of some of the images as an anti-ad campaign for Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz. Could never understand why so many of my friends and their parents purchased either brand for transportation.

Freedom isn’t free. Thank the veterans around you and those who serve now.

Buy a Benz?
Buy a Benz?.