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From the Editor

Wednesday, 30 June 2010 12:59 Greg Archer Columns - Editors Note
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greg_archerS2sPlus Letters to Good Times...
Doing Desal?
2012 Misconceptions
2012, Here We Come ...
Holiday Deadlines
Holidays are a good thing, so enjoy them when they arrive. The nation’s biggest holiday, in fact, arrives this week via the Fourth of July. No doubt, we’ll all partake in some kind of revelry as the country reaches its 234th birthday this year. Well, if you start counting from the time we adopted the Constitution in 1787, that would make us 223 years old. Then again, beyond “us,” the place we call America is actually much older. Native Indian tribes, as we all know, had lived here for nearly 25,000 years before Spaniards began exploring the area in the early 16th century. In any case, the land may be “old,” but it seems that many of the modern humans overseeing it are “young.”

Which is why it never hurts to stir the senses and push ourselves from time to time, and move beyond what’s always comfortable—and basically find ways to be better stewards of the place we call home. Locally, there are many titans doing just that, but I urge readers to log onto to Ecology Action’s website (ecoact.org) and discover ways in which we all can make a difference in the environment—while we still have one. As we noted in last week’s cover story, Ecology Action is leading an effort to set goals for 2010-2015 in the area of the natural environment. Readers can take a Community Assessment Project survey on the site—as well as GT’s site, to weigh in on a number of vital issues. While you have the extra time this weekend, it wouldn’t hurt to take a few moments to do the survey and be part of shaping the future of the county.  Dive in.

Have a super holiday.
Greg Archer | Editor-in-Chief

Letters to Good Times Editor

Doing Desal?
Is the data you reported in your recent cover story on the desalination plant correct? The article states that 5 million gallons of seawater per day will be drawn from the Monterey Bay, half of which will be made into drinkable water, the remaining 2.5 million gallons will be trucked to a waste water treatment plant. Really?

Consider that the capacity of those large semi-tractor rigs that bring gasoline to our city is 9,000 gallons. It will require 277 truck loads per day to move that volume of brine from the desalination plant to the waste water treatment plant. Every day.

I imagine that will have a considerable impact on traffic and street surfaces. Will the fuel use of those trucks be factored into the carbon footprint and energy consumption of the desal plant?
Craig Cheatham
Santa Cruz

2012 Misconceptions
Astrologers and most astronomers have not noticed the rare planetary alignments that occur from Sept. 11, to Oct. 31, 2010. Uranus, Jupiter, Earth and Venus will move in and out of alignment, nearly in line with Mercury and Saturn on the other side of the Sun. This may create more solar activity than on Dec. 21, 2012. It has been shown that global meditations involving several million people was associated with decreases in Solar activity. This was a three-and-a-half-year project done in the 1980s.

Also, most people have not noticed the Venus transit of June 4-6, 2012, when there is a partial eclipse of the Moon is perigee (nearest) the Earth. At this time also, Mars and Saturn line up with the Sun, which may create more solar activity than usual and stress on the Earth.
Buryl Payne Ph.D
Santa Cruz

2012, Here We Come ...
The end of the world? Please! The idea that the world is most definitely coming to an end in 2012 is just nonsense. Maybe it will come to end, maybe it won’t! But humans seem so fascinated with destroying the culture, that I have no doubt that we’ll figure out a way to end the world—on our own. Life will go on, probably—just not our lives. I wonder if we’ll ever “grow up” and and “get” it.
Jan Anderson
Santa Cruz

Holiday Deadlines
Good Times offices will be closed Monday, July 5 in observance of Independence Day. Offices reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 6. The following deadlines will be in effect for the Thursday, July 8 issue. Display and Classified Display advertising deadlines are 3 pm, Thursday, July 1. Classified advertising deadline is 11 am, Monday, July 5.

 

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