We Stopped the Diablo Testing
Together we can change the world
Back to back, Earth flag unfurled
Our green, the leaves; our gold, the sun
We dedicate water to the salmon run
Our friends are respected, and not vivisected
All of the creatures on Earth are connected
With hearts soft as lupine and stronger than granite
We’re changing the course and healing our planet!
A wicked wind strafed the highway, as pea-soup fog crossed the bow of the Scacciabong. At the height of west-coast storm #3, the RV was lit up like a Christmas tree, but driving into a wall of cotton through horizontal rain, and zero visibility. The mission to Monterey was in grave doubt and the goal at this rough point was to simply survive the trip across Highway 46.
Conditions were so bad that a line of SUVs, sat behind us, content to follow at a safe distance as high winds pushed our high-profile vehicle all over the road. I was sure our fog-lights were the only thing they could see anyway. I felt not unlike Captain Paul Watson in Antarctica, battling winds at the helm of the Farley Mowatt!
Finally, mercifully, we reached the 101 Freeway and moored at Jack-in-the-Box for nine of those addictive tacos and a break from the storm. “Supposed to clear up and be sunny by 2:00,” said a man pumping gas.
“I’d like to see that,” said I, “We’re headed for Monterey.”
Despite some rain, the rest of the journey north was uneventful, but the show was not. We arrived two hours early, camped outside the studio and fired up the Droid hotspot to check in with the world. Soon, Geoff Shester from the Monterey office of OCEANA arrived and climbed on board. He hit it right off with my German shepherds, who sniffed him for information about the two cattle-dogs he has at home. I love dog people!
When Geoff and I entered the KRXA studio in Monterey and put on our headphones, it was the first time we had worked together, but you’d never have known it. Saving the world brings the coolest people together, and with host Michelle Jackson leading us from one important conversation to the next, it was all smooth as a rain-slicked field of clover. Probably the most important thing to come out of the show was the important precedent-setting nature of the California Coastal Commission decision against the seismic testing proposed by Pacific Gas and Electric, and the universal high praise for the work of CCC staff.
The staff report will be invaluable for the United States Department of the Interior toward establishing the dangers of seismic assaults on the marine environment in all U.S. waters, and even beyond.
We touched on so many important items and issues that it is probably best just to make a cup of tea, sit back and listen to the podcast of the show. I’m sure that is what the OCEANA big wigs will do in Washington D.C. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship and some much-needed ecological sanity!
Many thanks and congratulations the Stop the Diablo Canyon Seismic Testing page on Facebook, including everyone from individuals to Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, Great Whales Conservancy, American Indian Movement and all our native brothers and sisters, the WhalesneedUS coalition, and anyone I didn’t mention!