The Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara, in cooperation with Santa Barbara County Action Network, 350 Santa Barbara, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board, Sunrise Movement-Santa Barbara, Women’s March-Santa Barbara, and other social justice and environmental justice organizations, is planning a Rally and March with Elders and Youth in support of the Fridays for Future Global Climate Strike, Friday, Sept. 24.
The rally begins at 4:30 p.m. at the County Administration Building, 105 E. Anapamu St., followed by a march onto State Street, ending at De La Guerra Plaza.
Elders are joining with youth to send a message to Santa Barbara County that it should deny the Exxon trucking proposal at the Sept. 29 Planning Commission hearing. Exxon’s plan to restart aging offshore platforms and transport thousands of gallons of oil over county roads must be stopped, the Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara said.
At a time when reducing greenhouse gas emissions is critical, the proposed project would have negative impacts, accelerating the Climate Crisis with the extreme fires, deadly heatwaves, drought, food insecurity, migration, and severe economic impacts, according to the organization.
In 2015 the pipeline that transported oil from Exxon’s three offshore oil drilling platforms ruptured, causing a major oil spill that killed wildlife and polluted beaches in Santa Barbara County.
The pipeline has not been replaced and the aging platforms have been shut down. However, Exxon is now proposing to resume drilling and transport the oil in trucks (70 oil trucks per day) on county highways, 24/7 for up to seven years as they develop plans for a new pipeline, the Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara reports.
It is estimated more than a million megatons of CO2 will be emitted by this project yearly at a time when the urgency to reduce greenhouse gases is critical. In response to the recently released Sixth Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science, U.N. secretary general António Guterres warned: “[This report] is a code red for humanity.”