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The United States of America (4): The Pacific West
The Far West of the United States has all kinds of different landscapes and climates: vast dark
forests cover the Cascade Mountains in the Northwest,
in the Southwest arid lands lie under a scorching sun.
At the very edge of the North-American continent the steep cliffs of the coastal ranges meet the
pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean.
Southern Coast
Mention the West Coast and people will think of California: sun, sand and surf, but this is typical of
only the most southern part of the Pacific coast, which after all stretches through two climatic
zones from Mexico over more than thousand miles all the way up to Canada.
The average water temperature hovers at around 60 degrees, even in summer.
In this water it’s best to wear a wet suit, unless of course nature supplied you with very thick skin
and an ample layer of fat.
These male elephant seals, sunning themselves in a secluded cove, are just one example of the
diverse wildlife at home in the cool waters of the California current, which flows along the coast
from North to South.
North of Los Angeles the powerful pacific surf pounds a ragged and rocky coastline. These
mountains dropping off into the sea are located at the westernmost edge of the North-American
continent.
Especially during the hot summer months fog forms over the cool coastal waters .
When the wind pushes the fog towards the land, damp gray clouds darken the hills of the Coastal
Ranges.
“It never rains in California”, a popular song says. Well, at least for the summer months, this is true.
Yet the mountains facing the ocean are covered with dense green plants and flowers. They benefit
from the moist coastal fog.
Farther inland the vegetation is parched from months without rain.
Crossing the Coastal Ranges, which run parallel to the coastline, temperatures may vary between
60° to 70° along the coast and 100° Fahrenheit farther inland.
The world famous Golden Gate Bridge spans the entrance to San Francisco Bay.
All traffic travelling the coastal road, 101, will cross the Golden Gate Bridge.
Northbound heading for Oregon and Washington, or southbound travelling to Los Angeles and
San Diego.
All day long ships pass through this small gap in the coastal mountains.
They are carrying cargoes to the major ports in Asia.
Or heading into San Francisco Bay, to bring even more goods to the US.
In a seemingly endless shuttle service, huge tankers are carrying crude oil from Alaska to the
refineries on the West Coast.
Cities and suburbs around the Bay have grown into one big residential area called the Metropolitan
Bay Area, which can be compared in size to Los Angeles or cities on the East Coast.
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The hub of the Metropolitan Bay Area is and always will be San Francisco.
Entering the streets of San Francisco, you’ll find yourself in a relatively small city on a hilly tip of
land crisscrossed by roads that are straight as an arrow.
The most famous of San Francisco’s colorful neighborhoods is bustling Chinatown.
It’s said to be the largest Chinese community outside of China.
That is possible, since 18% of all the population in the Bay Area are of Asian descent.
North of San Francisco a group of harbor seals are dozing on a sandbank.
The rising tide is slowly driving them from their comfortable place in the sun.
If animals do have a sixth’s sense for oncoming catastrophies, the people of San Francisco for the
moment can put their mind at rest, because these lazy seals are resting right along the San
Andreas Fault, which runs through Bolinas Bay.
The hills across from us, on the other side of Bolinas Bay are part of San Reyes peninsula.
Point Reyes peninsula jolted as much as 18 feet northwest during the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake and it still moves several inches each year away from the continent.
The San Andreas Fault runs along the coast of northern California, divides Point Reyes from the
continent and then passing inland at San Francisco.
The San Andreas fault marks the junction between the North American and Pacific Plate. Although
both plates are moving northwest, the pacific Plate moves faster by about 2 inches a year. When
they get stuck, and the pressure gets too high, it causes an earthquake.
Should these plates continue to slide past each other, Los Angeles and the area marked red, will
eventually be an island off the Canadian coast.
Northern Coast
The cool waters of the California current are rich fishing grounds not only for pelicans and
seagulls.
Yet in the small harbor towns like Newport, Oregon many of the fishermen are out of work and
angry at the federal government, which in the fifties encouraged them to buy boats, but today
enforces rigid quotas, because the coast has been overfished.
The only thing booming in this town is the tourist business.
Stop wishing, come fishing is advertised on the dock, where once fish was processed.
Between November and March, when whales pass along the coast, whale-watch tours are a
special favorite with nature lovers.
The long drive along the coast on U.S. 101 has become a year round tourist attraction.
Many of the tiny towns along the road haven’t changed much in the past 100 years.
The local store has a new coat of paint and calls itself Deli, but otherwise everything has
remained just as it was.
Fishing and lumber is what moves people in the North-West.
A hundred trucks a day drop off their loads at this lumbermill in Oregon.
Douglas fir, spruce and redwoods, building material for houses, decks and garden furniture are
stacked high here.
The incoming trucks drive onto scales to be weighed. Then the trees are measured and
registered for the lumber companies.
With today´s tools of the trade it’s a fast job, the drivers move in and out of as if they were on an
assembly line.
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But the lumber industry has it’s troubles, too.
More and more people insist they want to keep the “old growth forests” untouched.
Just this summer, the State of Oregon has enraged conservationists, by leasing one entire
valley to the lumber industry to cut down.
As of now, no compromise is in sight.
Dense “old growth forest” of massive Douglas-firs covers much of the Cascade Range.
On the eastern side of the mountains, the annual rainfall decreases the farther you travel inland,
while the western slopes are true to their name.
Cascades of cool, clear water flow through these mountains.
Ferns and mosses grow in the moist shade.
Amidst the Cascades rises the snow covered peak of Mount Hood, one in a line of volcanoes
dotting the Cascades from Northern California to Canada.
Looking out across Puget sound, the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle are wedged between the
snow covered Cascades and the water.
Ferries cross between Seattle and Victoria in British Columbia.
Cruise ships dock in the harbor.
Seattle has become not only the industrial center, but also a magnet for people drawn to the NorthWest.
Not only Bill Gates appreciates this town, where relaxed West Coast style meets European flair.
Shopping in Pike Place Market is an unusual attraction in a country where plastic packaging is
the norm and supermarket shelves look much the same all over.
Most of the fruits and vegetables sold here are from within the country, many of them from
California´s Central Valley.
Central Valley
To get to Central Valley, we head back south through the mountains.
The snow covered volcanic peak of Mount Shasta rises on the southern edge of the Cascades. It
marks the beginning of the great Central Valley, which stretches from here 500 miles farther
south to Bakersfield.
Interstate 5 divides the green fields of Central Valley from the parched hills of the Coastal Ranges,
which form a natural barrier between the valley and the coast.
Like a great artificial river, the California Aqueduct transports water more than 400 miles from the
Sierra Nevada watershed to users in Central and Southern California.
A net of natural rivers and canals distributes water all over Central Valley, where all kinds of
grains, vegetables and fruits are grown.
It rains here during the winter months, but hardly ever during the summer.
Without irrigation it would be impossible to grow anything in this arid land.
John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” was originally titled „L’Affaire Lettuceburg“.
Now, just as then, lettuce is grown in the fields around Salinas and the lettuce is still harvested by
migrant workers, most of them coming from Mexico.
Working conditions have improved considerably since John Steinbeck wrote of the plight of the
migrant workers. Still this is a touchy subject.
Many of them are here illegally and the government enforces strict laws against illegal
immigration. On the other hand companies want and need cheap labor.
Without these migrant workers there would be no harvest. That is not different in the USA than it is
in other industrial countries.
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These strawberries are cultivated to be perfect in color and shape.
They keep well, even if transported long distances. But maybe they are just too perfect.
Fruits like these can only be produced by the heavy use of pesticides.
Companies work hard to produce a product that sells.
They deliver what the American consumer wants.
More than half of the population in Central Valley are Latinos, whose mother tongue is Spanish.
Especially the small towns in Central valley and along the border to Mexico show the influence
from “South of the border”.
The Spanish were the first Europeans to come here.
Their influence is still visible in the mission churches, like this one at the Yuma crossing high
above the Colorado river.
This is all that is left of the waters of the mighty Colorado, before it reaches Mexico.
Some wetlands and one more canal with water for the fields around Yuma.
Yuma is situated right at the border between Arizona and California, surrounded by desert.
It’s hot here, even in March. The temperature at 10:30 a.m. is 95°.
In the spring, the desert is beautiful.
Joshua trees are ready to flower and cactus are in bloom.
But even the most delicate desert blossoms can’t hide the fact that for many people the desert is
fairly useless.
America wouldn’t be America though, if it couldn’t get some use out of even the most desolate
spot.
This gap in the San Bernadino mountains is dotted with hundreds of generators.
The strong winds between the cool coast and the hot desert turn wheels that generate electricity.
Electricity that is much needed in Southern California.
Los Angeles
15,5 Million people live in the Greater Los Angeles Area alone.
In the 80’s, the water supply was the big problem.
In the summer 2000 California was running out of electricity.
8 hours of power outages are disastrous for the computer industry and unthinkable for a leading
industrial nation.
What makes Los Angeles so special?
It certainly isn’t the breathtaking architecture.
To get to know this town where the palm trees are higher than most houses and roads don’t always
have sidewalks, you have to get into your car and drive.
Los Angeles, the town of the angels, is also known as “car city”.
2000 kilometers of highway crisscross this mega city, which is still growing.
Industrial areas, office buildings, suburbs and malls, 88 communities all in one huge
metropolitan area.
The downtown skyscrapers mark the center of a sprawling city, which really has no center.
The attraction of this city is measured by the hours of sunshine.
Los Angeles advertises its cultural diversity.
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But this cultural diversity is coupled with an immense gap in economic wealth and that is not
without problems.
Problems which even the most superficial look at this town can’t hide.
The shoppers on Rodeo Drive live worlds apart from people shopping at the swap-meet, and yet
they walk the streets of the same city.
If there is one thing the Angelino loves more than his shiny car, it’s sports.
The best things in life are free and so is a friendly game on one of the public courts spread
around the city.
For those who don’t play basketball, there’s always the beach.
Supervised by life guards, who in real life do not look quite as smashing as they do on TV, the
Angelino can relax in the water.
So after all, on a hot August weekend, that old California dream of sun, sand and surf finally does
ring true.
United States of America
Part IV The West Coast Vocabulary
landscape(s)
- Landschaft
climate(s), climatic zone(s) – Klima, Klimazone
vast
- riesig, enorm
forest(s)
- Wald
arid
- trocken
to scorch
- versengen, verbrennen
coastal ranges
- Küstengebirge
to pound
- stoßen, schlagen
Southern Coast
mention
- erwähnen
average
- durchschnittlich
to hover
- schweben
wet suit
- Neoprenanzug
ample
- reichlich
elephant seal(s)
- Seeelefanten
secluded
- abgeschieden
cove
- Bucht
current
- Strömung
ragged
- i.d.Falle zerklüftet
westernmost
- westlichstes
coastal water(s)
- Küstengewässer
dense
- dicht
to benefit
- begünstigt sein
coastal fog.
- Küstennebel
parched
- ausgetrocknet
vary
- variierend
degree(s)
- Grad
to span
- überbrücken, -spannen
coastal road
- Küstenstraße
northbound / southbound – nordwärts, südwärts
to head
- (in best. Richtung) bewegen
to travel
- reisen
cargo(es)
- Fracht
port(s)
- Hafen
crude oil
- Rohöl, Erdöl
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refinery(ies)
bay
hub
bustling
population
seal(s)
to doze
comfortable
catastrophe(s)
earthquake
junction
pressure
- Raffinerie
- Bucht
- Mittelpunkt
- geschäftig, belebt
- Bevölkerung
- Seehunde
- dösen
- bequem
- Katastrophe
- Erdbeben
- Kreuzung, Treffpunkt
- Druck
Northern Coast
pelican(s)
seagull(s)
harbor town(s)
fifties
rigid
quota(s)
booming business
to advertise
to process
whale(s)
tiny
local store
deli
to remain
lumber
lumber mill
fir
spruce
furniture
to stack
scales
to weigh
to measure
to register
tools of the trade
assembly line
old growth forest(s)
enraged
conservationist(s)
to lease
entire
annual
to decrease
slope(s)
cascades
fern(s)
moss(es)
volcano(es)
dotting
downtown
wedged
ferry(ies)
cruise ship(s)
to appreciate
plastic packaging
- Pelikan
- Möwe
- Hafenstadt
- fünfziger Jahre
- steif, nicht flexibel
- Quote
- florierendes Geschäft
- Werbung
- bearbeiten
- Wal
- winzig
- Dorfladen
- Delikatessgeschäft
- bleiben
- Bau- und Nutzholz
- Sägewerk
- Tanne
- Fichte
- Möbel
- stapeln
- Waage
- wiegen
- messen
- registrieren
- Arbeitsgeräte
- Fließband
- Urwald
- wütend
- Umweltschützer
- zu pachten
- ganz, gänzlich
- jährlich
- abnehmend,
- Hang
- Kaskaden
- Farn
- Moos
- Vulkan
- punktuelles Vorkommen
- Innenstadt
- eingezwängt
- Fähre
- Kreuzfahrt-Schiff
- zu schätzen wissen
- Plastikverpackung
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shelf(ves)
- Regal
Central Valley
to stretch
farther
artificial
to distribute
fruits and vegetables
irrigation
lettuce
to harvest
migrant worker(s)
to improve
considerably
plight
to enforce
strict laws
strawberry(ies)
color and shape
pesticide(s)
to produce, product
deliver
mother tongue
border
influence
wetlands
to surround
desert
flower(s)
bloom
blossom(s)
desolate
- strecken, erstrecken
- weiter
- künstlich
- verteilen
- Obst und Gemüse
- Bewässerung
- Salat
- ernten
- Wanderarbeiter
- verbessern
- beachtlich
- Problem
- erzwingen, vollstrecken
- strenge Gesetze
- Erdbeere
- Farbe und Form
- Pflanzenschutzmittel
- produzieren, Produkt
- liefern
- Muttersprache
- Grenze
- Einfluss
- Feuchtgebiet, Sumpf
- umgeben, umzingeln
- Wüste
- Blumen
- blühen
- Blüte
- verwüstet, verlassen
Los Angeles
generate electricity
power outages
industrial nation
breathtaking
sidewalk(s)
crisscross
industrial area(s)
office building(s)
suburb(s)
mall(s)
community(ies)
metropolitan
sprawling
cultural diversity
superficial
shoppers
swap-meet
public court(s)
to supervise
- Elektrizität gewinnen
- Stromausfall
- Industrielle Nation
- atemberaubend
- Bürgersteig, Gehweg
- durchkreuzen
- Industriegebiet
- Bürogebäude
- Vorort, Wohngebiet
- Einkaufszentrum
- Gemeinschaft
- weltstädtisch
- ausgestreckt, ausbreiten
- kulturelle Vielfalt
- oberflächlich
- Käufer
- Flohmarkt
- öffentliche Plätze
- überwachen
Special Terms and Places:
Far West - Cascade Mountains - Pacific Ocean - California current - Coastal Ranges – Fahrenheit
Metropolitan Bay Area - San Andreas Fault – Point Reyes – North American Plate - Pacific Plate U.S. 101 - Interstate 5 - Cascades - Puget Sound - California’s Central Valley - California - Sierra
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Nevada watershed - Central and Southern California - Latinos - Yuma crossing - Colorado River a.m.- p.m. - San Bernardino Mountains – Angelino
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