Forty years ago this month, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel from Union Oil’s Platform A six miles offshore and fouled the coastline from Goleta to the Rincon, as well as all four of the northern Channel Islands.

To commemorate the event, which some scholars believe sparked the modern environmental movement, UCSB History Associates is sponsoring a talk by Josh Ashenmiller titled “From ‘Get Oil Out’ to ‘Drill Baby Drill’: Offshore Oil Since the 1969 Disaster.” A history instructor at Fullerton College, Ashenmiller will speak at 2 p.m. Jan. 25 in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

The event is free, but registration is recommended. Call the UCSB Office of Community Relations at 805.893.4388. The weekend parking fee is $3.

Ashenmiller, a Los Angeles resident, received his doctorate in U.S. history from UCSB in 2004. He is a specialist in environmental policy of the 1970s, and published an article on the Alaska Oil Pipeline in the journal Pacific Historical Review.

The History Associates talk is part of a series of events organized by UCSB’s environmental studies program that takes a look back at the 1969 oil spill and also looks forward to continuing issues of oil drilling, energy independence and environmental activism.