Fifty years ago, in January and February of 1969, a blowout on Union Oil’s Platform A released 80,000-100,000 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Channel, covering the coast from Goleta to Ventura and the Channel Islands.
The spill killed thousands of sea birds, fish and marine mammals including dolphins and seals.
Public outrage led to environmental legislation and the modern environmental movement. Now that numerous recently released reports have indicated how critical the protection of our environment is, it is important to look back at the history of our concerns.
In that context, Marc McGinnes, professor emeritus and a founding member of UCSB’s Environmental Studies Program, will discuss the central role the Santa Barbara community has played in launching and sustaining the environmental movement over the past 50 years.
His talk, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM), 113 Harbor Way, also will examine the work of the environmental movement in Santa Barbara and beyond during the coming 50 years.
McGinnes is a graduate of Stanford University, where he was an honors student in history and an intercollegiate athlete in four sports, and of the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).
Following post-doctoral study, he joined the San Francisco law firm of Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges as an attorney working for clients in the engineering and construction industries.
In 1969, McGinnes moved to Santa Barbara to begin work as an environmental lawyer in the aftermath of the offshore oil platform blowout and spill early that year.
He served as chair of the January 28 Committee, which presented the Santa Barbara Declaration of Environmental Rights at the national Environmental Rights Day conference on the first anniversary of the blowout and spill.
In 1970, he became the founding president of the Community Environmental Council (CEC), one of the nation’s first community-based environmental
education centers.
In 1971, he joined the faculty at UCSB, where he developed and taught 10 courses in the areas of environmental law, policy, dispute resolution, and ecopsychology, including the longest running undergraduate course in environmental law in the U.S.
McGinnes is the author of Principles of Environmental Law (Rainbow Bridge 1980), and is currently at work on his third book, Falling in Love with the Earth, Again, which will be available for sale at the event.
In addition to his academic teaching and scholarship, McGinnes has been a pioneer in the professional practices of environmental law and legal ecology since 1969.
In 1977, he led the founding of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), a regionally-centered public interest environmental law firm.
EDC led a successful six-year struggle on behalf of Native American groups to prevent the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility near Pt. Conception on land held by them to be sacred.
EDC lawyers have represented environmental organizations and others in cases involving a variety of planning and environmental protection issues.
From 1970 to the present, McGinnes has served as a director and advisor to nonprofit organizations including the Congress on Optimum Population and Environment (Chicago), Earth Island Institute (San Francisco), Antioch University, and Viridis Graduate Institute (Santa Barbara).
Cost to attend McGinnes’ talk is $10 for members, $20 for nnon-members. To register, visit www.sbmm.org or call 805-456-8747.
Visit sbmm.org or call 805-962-8404 for details.