Hundreds Join Hands Across the Sand at West Beach in Protest of Offshore Drilling
Saturday's human chain marked the 50th anniversary of the California Coastal Act and joined a coordinated day of demonstrations against new offshore oil drilling.
Environmental advocates gathered at West Beach in Santa Barbara on Saturday, Sept. 26, and formed a human chain along the sand as part of Hands Across the Sand, a coordinated nationwide demonstration against offshore oil drilling, the New York Post reported.
The local gathering, one of a series held along the California coast that day, ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at West Beach, 401 Shoreline Drive. Participants included members of the Fearless Grandmothers, the Surfrider Foundation, Sea League and Women's March, according to the Post.
The demonstration marked the 50th anniversary of the California Coastal Act, the 1976 state law that governs development and public access along the California coast.
Hands Across the Sand began in 2009, founded by Surfrider member Dave Rauschkolb as a grassroots protest in Florida. It has since grown into a nationwide demonstration held on beaches and waterways.
The weekend demonstration came days after the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 1 to oppose a provision in the House-passed 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that would give the federal government new authority over land along the Santa Ynez Pipeline System, with the county sending a letter stating its opposition to Senate leadership.
Tribal leader Toni Cordero, a member of the Environmental Defense Center's board, addressed the crowd, the Santa Barbara Independent reported, as cited by the Post: "I ask you please to reflect on the fact that you are standing on unceded ancestral homelands of the Chumash peoples... Please think about what that means to us and what it means to you. And please think about what you can do to move beyond mere land acknowledgement."
Ethan Maday, a 16-year-old activist at the gathering, told the Independent, as cited by the Post: "We don't need to build more infrastructure for a dying industry." He added that it "sucks" that "we still need oil today."
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