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FROM TH E LOW ER LEFT CORNER
C annon B each O utdoor W ear
The Lesser O f Tw o Evils
OSBORNE
‘B ISSALE
W O R K IN G
Victoria Stoppicllo
S T U D IO & G A L L E R Y
6 3 5 M A N Z A N IT A A V E N U E
M A N Z A N IT A ,
OREGON
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The Oregonian headline read, "The bid
to avert env ironmental disaster appears to
succeed." That was February 12. The "bid" was
the attempt to burn the New Carissa, stranded on
a southern Oregon beach. Even if she had burned
totally and things had gone as planned, I still
wouldn’t say that an environmental disaster was
avoided. It was just a trade off, a choice between
a short-term, visible disaster, and a long-term
invisible problem.
Of course, 1 wasn't the one weighing all
the factors, the threat to wildlife, the impact on
fisheries, the spoiling the beaches and the Oregon
coast's tourism economy. Monday morning
quarterbacks like me have our theories and
hindsight to aid us in making the perfect decision
in an imperfect situation. I suspect we will have
more impossible dilemmas like this one: What
to do with a stranded ship wallowing in the surf?
Let her lay, with the prospect of an oil spill, or
light her afire so that 400,000 gallons of bunker
oil would go up in smoke? Land and water
pollution, or air pollution?
Now the coast near Coos Bay may have
another landmark, a souvenir in the real sense of
the word, "to remember" —that the ocean is still
more powerful than human devices. As a kid I
enjoyed visiting the shipwrecks that dotted the
beaches on both sides of the Columbia River
mouth, the graveyard of the Pacific. The Peter
Iredale was a favorite, its metal hull rusted and
barnacled in a picturesque fashion, its bowsprit
reminding us that the Iredale was a sailing ship.
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Another sailing ship went down just
this year, the Fantome, a four-masted, 282-foot
vessel, with all her crew. I'd seen her picture
many times because I'm a dreamer and read the
ads and scanned the brochures of the Windjammer
"barefoot cruise" fleet—cruise ships that plied
the Caribbean. During Hurricane Mitch, the
Fantome deposited her passengers safely on
shore, then attempted to outrun the storm, never
to be seen again.
A similar problem faced the New
Carissa, the prospect of a storm with 70 mile an
hour winds. How large, how strong would the
storm be? What were the chances she would
break up while stranded? The Salvage Chief was
there, ready to attempt a rescue, but not directed
to do so. The Chief is a famous vessel in its own
right. (Notice the change in pronoun—somehow
a ship that goes out to sea to rescue other ships
that are all "she's must be a "he" or at least an
"it"—a knight rescuing damsels in distress.) I've
seen the Chief only once, but have heard
references to its work most of my life. Here was
the one combination of machine and men that
might save the day, but I heard by the time the
Chief got there, the New Carissa was deemed too
fragile to move. The decision was to bum her
before the storm hit. By burning the freighter,
there wouldn't be as much oil along the coast—
but an insidious, invisible impact instead, one
that worries me more...because I'm concerned
about the weather
The weather this year has been
alarming, not just elsewhere, but locally.
Flooding in our area has been blamed on higher
than typical rainfall, a third higher. Instead of 30 <■
some inches of rain, November through January,
we got 40 plus. Ten days into February, we’ve
received nearly the average for the whole month.
If you think it's been raining a lot, you’re not
exaggerating. I shrug mentally and remember
predictions sev eral years ago that one of the
results of global warming would be higher
precipitation in the temperate zones. Maybe
that's what's going on.
The international insurance industry
isn't shrugging; they've decided global warming
and climate change arc realities. They are
lobbying to reduce greenhouse gases. Money is
the motivator because insurance companies have
been paying out big money for storm damage
along the world's coastlines and flooding along
the rivers. It's been bad enough that insurers are
afraid if it keeps up, they may go bankrupt.
I wonder if the people who decided to
bum the New Carissa thought about its
contribution to global warming. I doubt it,
because 1 seldom think of it myself, when I start
the car or light a fire, even though I know better.
It's so easy to let the smoke go, a plume that
rises and disappears, contributing its small bit to
climate change, and indirectly but inexorably to
difficult weather and unseasonable storms.
Another ship, somewhere else, will have to cope
with it.
Victoria Sloppiello is a writer living in
Ilwaco, at the lower left corner o f Washington
stale.
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