California's Golden Dreams

California is a famous state. It is famous for things everyone knows but also for things that'll probably surprise you. Most of us know that California is the home of movie stars (of course Hollywood is located in California), but very few people know that it is one of the major cheese producing States in the USA! California is a progressive state, with an experimental culture that always thinks ahead, whether in technology, fashion or social issues. There are many who dream about moving to California. And why not, for its the state that has an attractive past and a very promising future.

California is well know for its progressive politics and social policies. When automotive pollutants and an atmospheric inversion conspired to create a huge air pollution problem over Los Angeles, the populace responded with regulations that severely limited the amount of emissions permitted from each automobile. The measures were effective and now air in Los Angeles is much cleaner. These types of actions have given California the distinction of having its clean air and automotive emission standards used as the benchmark for the rest of the United States. Trend setting has always been one of the notable points of California's culture.

What could be more quintessential California than the movie industry? This is the home state of Hollywood, and the gated communities of movie and music stars. The rambling and twisting of Route 101, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, have been the scene of many a movie chase scene through mountains and around treacherous curves. Malibu is the city to be for people who star in major motion pictures, with A-List stars' homes nestled in the mountains. Of course, those same homes are often the first victims when one of the famous wild fires that often strike the hills comes roaring through.

California is a land of contrasts: productive green areas of mountains supporting the largest trees on earth, valleys full of luscious produce, and arid desert areas supporting little life, mountains that soar to the sky (Mt. Whitney at 14,494 feet) and valleys sitting below sea level (Death Valley at minus 282 feet) 75% of the state’s rain falls in the north, while the south, which has 75% of the agricultural and urban demand, receives an average of 12 inches per year. The ability to move, store and distribute water to where it is needed was, therefore, a crucial skill that has helped make California the US's leading food producer, a major manufacturing center, the most populous state in the US, and the eighth largest economy in the world (water-ed.org). Its rugged terrain that helps store some of this water in vast lakes is courtesy of the dramatic effects of its geology, sitting as it does on the edge of the ‘Ring of Fire’.

The thought of geological plates moving and causing earthquakes terrifies most of us, but not all fault movement is violent and destructive. Near the city of Hollister in central California, the Calaveras Fault creeps at an average rate of 5-6 mm a year and experiences 20,000 earthquakes a year, most of which are too small for the inhabitants to notice. That the ‘Big One’ will come and Los Angeles and California will break off and fall into the ocean is myth. Yes, the two plates that meet here are moving, but they are sliding past each other, not riding up on each other (transverse not converging boundaries; usgs.gov and extremescience.com) So instead of part of California falling into the ocean, it may end up adjoining Alaska - given a billion years or two! Meanwhile, whether you love to surf, sunbathe, ski or shop, the pleasures of California await you.