California Coast & Ocean

Once vessels enter our territorial waters, however, we have authority to require cleaner practices. Recent local, state, and federal measures are finally having some impact. In February, Congressional hearings considered proposed legislation introduced by California Senator Barbara Boxer that would require ships entering U.S. ports to burn cleaner fuels. During those hearings, a southern California emergency room physician called the San Pedro/Long Beach port region a “diesel death zone.” Ultra-fine particulates slip past the mucus and cilia defenses of our respiratory systems and lodge deep in the lungs. There they interfere with air-blood gas exchange, reducing lung efficiency with grim consequences: asthma, cardiac problems, and early deaths. The California Air Resources Board calculates that movement of goods is responsible for 2,400 premature deaths every year.

Hundreds of thousands of people live near the southern California ports, as well as near the state’s third-largest port, Oakland. They are, of course, most immediately affected, but the aerial effects from shipping are not limited to the immediate vicinity of the ports. The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District estimates that ship emissions blowing onshore have essentially negated all the gains they have made by controlling emissions from cars and trucks, despite the fact that Santa Barbara has no commercial port and that container vessels travel 10 to 15 miles offshore.

Ships are not the only source of air pollution in ports. Cargo is transferred by diesel-powered loaders and forklifts onto thousands of diesel-powered trucks or to trains with diesel engines. Efforts have begun to provide electrical hookups so ships can use electric motors in place of their diesel auxiliary engines while in port and also to require cleaner-burning fuels in trucks and trains. But such efforts have proceeded too slowly for many port neighbors and the environmental groups that represent their interests.

When the Coalition for a Safe Environment and the Natural Resources Defense Council threatened to file a federal lawsuit this winter because of slow implementation of plans by the Long Beach port to reduce diesel particulate emissions, attorneys for the two organizations provided some pungent quotations: “Goods movement in California is responsible for more deaths every year than homicides. In view of that, ‘trying hard’ is just not enough.” They also pointed out that “Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster has said many times that it is not right to have the children of Long Beach pay with their health so that people in the Midwest can buy cheap TVs from Asia.”

So, Mr. Muir, your observation that everything is hitched together seems increasingly accurate and relevant. Though I live hundreds of miles inland, my purchasing decisions have consequences for people residing near the places where those overseas goods made their California landfall. The 21st-century global economy impacts air quality and personal health for far too many people, but my concerns come full circle as I also consider the carbon footprint of those goods--the greenhouse gas emissions inevitably produced as manufactured items move across the oceans in ships burning fossil fuels. Even the books I’ve authored in recent years are printed in China, because that is the place for publishers to go for high-quality color imagery. I’m dismayed to realize the size of the carbon footprint and the climate and health impacts of these books, which are intended to improve environmental awareness of issues like water and air in California.

John Muir, you were correct, but the connections you described have consequences that go beyond anything you likely ever imagined. Comprehending that I am one of millions of people in this state and that there are billions more of us across the planet, I’ll keep trying to appreciate those connections hitching me to everything else in the universe.

David Carle’s books include three guides to understanding human influences on California’s ecology and natural resources, published by the University of California Press: Introduction to Water in California ( 2004), Introduction to Air in California (2006), and Introduction to Fire in California (2008). He was a State Parks ranger for 27 years.