Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Santa Barbara on Sunday to mark 50 years of the modern environmental movement that launched in the aftermath of the devastating 1969 oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel.
The Community Environmental Council, the Environmental Defense Center, Get Oil Out and UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Program held a free community event at the Arlington Theatre to commemorate the anniversary of the disaster. The nonprofit organizations were established in response to the Jan. 28, 1969, well blowout, which spilled tens of thousands of barrels of oil into the ocean from a drilling platform about 5½ miles offshore.
“At the time, the spill was the worst in the nation’s history, and quickly became a spill heard around the world,” said Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara.
Shortly afterward, she noted, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act and President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency.
The first Earth Day was held a year after the spill, said Sigrid Wright, CEO and executive director of the CEC, which is focused on moving the Santa Barbara region from fossil fuels and energy-intensive products. Wright has led the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival production team for more than 15 years.
Community response is among the many lessons learned from the 1969 catastrophe, she said. The spill propelled many people into environmental activism, and the momentum has not stopped.
Multiple speakers Sunday called for renewed engagement and civic action to ensure a better future.
“Those who were involved talk not only just about the devastation, but about the pride and the connection that came from working together to solve the problem,” said Wright, who also named “environmental heroes” like retired Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara; the late environmental activist Bud Bottoms; and others who “changed the course of history, not just for Santa Barbara, but for California and the nation.”
“We need immediate and radical action on climate change, action that is all encompassing with laws and economic policies that hold accountable those who would do bad for our climate and incentivize those who would do good,” Wright continued.
While “tremendous” progress was made following the 1969 spill, Krop said, it hasn’t stopped other incidents like the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill in Valdez, Alaska, and the 2015 oil pipeline leak near Refugio State Beach on the Gaviota coast.
Santa Barbara activists made it clear during the event that they will continue fighting proposed gas and oil leases off the California coast under President Donald Trump’s administration, an announcement made last year.
“These disastrous and inevitable consequences of oil development make it all the more urgent that we stay vigilant in the face of continued threats, including today, the Trump administration’s proposal to open more than 90 percent of the nation’s coast, including the entire California coast to new offshore oil drilling,” Krop said.
The large crowd booed Krop’s mention of Trump’s actions.
Rose Strauss, a UCSB sophomore and environmental science major, called for support for the proposed Green New Deal, which would require the United States to make the transition to 100 percent renewable sources of national power within 10 years and establish a clean-energy economic system to address both inequality and climate change.
Strauss spoke of action with Sunrise Movement, an activist group of young people concerned about the environment and dedicated to stopping climate change, but acknowledged that more must be done.
“This is no longer about conserving the environment,” she said. “This is the fight for our lives, and there is no time to waste.”
The anniversary event included a Chumash blessing, onstage performances by area bands, a poetry reading and a keynote address by Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA. It also featured speeches by lawmakers who mentioned legislation to protect the environment.
“We must recognize that if you don’t drill, you can’t spill,” said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara. “And that is a critical message we want to take forward.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
