Wilted Bloom

Wilted Bloom… As summer has finally arrived, Squid’s been out and about trying to get some rays on Squid’s translucent complexion. One place on Squid’s destination list is Lake San Antonio, which is managed by Monterey County Parks and is promoted as a recreational resource to get out in, or on, the water.

It’s been a tough stretch of years for enthusiasts wanting to get out on the lake – it barely rained for most of them – but this year, Squid was thinking: Perhaps now is Squid’s chance. Except for the fact there has been an algae bloom.

Then Squid got an email from the Monterey County Health Department informing Squid that the algae bloom has abated, and was downgraded from “danger” to “caution.” The email hailed this as “good news,” but also advises visitors to read what “caution” means: Stay away from algae and scum in the water, keep kids away from algae in the water or onshore, and as for fish caught in the lake, read the fine print.

Nonetheless, the county’s email says now is the “perfect time” to take advantage of “reduced visitation,” while also extolling that “lab results… showed a significant decrease in toxicity.”

Sounds fun!

NOT COOL SCHOOL… It’s not just freshwater (see above) that has Squid scratching Squid’s head, but also oceanfront Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove. Squid has learned that Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability, which includes Hopkins, is taking money from Big Oil. (Specifically, Squid counts a cool $20 million in 2019 from Shell.)

This kind of big giving is part and parcel of what fossil fuel companies do – they pour money into fancy universities and also fund a lot of studies and scientists. In at least some of those cases, the research results show that oil isn’t so bad, and that it’s the way of the future. It’s equivalent to tobacco companies funding lung cancer research.

Meanwhile, Maui burned a few weeks ago in the deadliest wildfire in modern American history. What also makes Squid hot, aside from the dystopian flavor of it all, is when highfalutin institutions like Stanford go against what science tells us, and for no other purpose than to bring money in the door.

Squid is a sea creature, and has seen Squid’s habitat slowly transform over the years due to climate change, but here’s the thing – humans have seen it, too. In fact, a study published in the 1990s based on observations taken off the Hopkins Marine Station’s shore – a place that’s been monitored since 1919 – was the first-ever paper to reveal the degradation of marine ecosystems due to climate change.

Squid’s colleague reached out to the Doerr School for comment, but did not hear back.