Environmentalists close to the sauna

Sometimes I wish I knew Spanish.  Then again, many Spanish-speaking people are quite literate in English.  Like my sauna compatriot at the gym today.

Both of us pondering how cold its gotten today - 20 degrees colder than yesterday.  Now I love the sauna, but for me its winding down from a workout.  For him, well he seemed dressed in kneepads and a wool cat.  So maybe he did want to warm up.

He was commenting on the lack of rain in Cali - along the freeway the pear trees had been uprooted and were lying for dead.  For lack of water.  It was a sadness to him, since when he came from Mexico he worked the orchards.  Described how in lean water years the tree rings were barely perceptible.  And how rain came in 50 year cycles.

Whoa, new information to me.  But he seemed quite close to the land.  Making me wonder who is the better environmentalist - someone who had worked the land, day in and day out.  Who could see directly the impact of climate change.  Or the local lobbyists - my recent experience at an Environmental Quality Commission hearing - all the forces in opposite lined up to testify - "yes we need alternative fuels" and they create jobs, "yes we need fossil fuels" and they create jobs.

Maybe the metric shouldn't be job creation - but something more objective.  Preservation of the earth - surely that creates jobs.  For without the earth, well, jobs in space are even harder to come by.