To bring attention to the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans, including Santa Barbara’s own coastline, students from the Environmental Affairs Board at UCSB will join elders from the Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara to create colorful street art, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11.
Community members are invited to participate in the action called Waves of Change.
This event marks the second annual street art action hosted by grandmothers and young people during the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Last year’s street art focused on climate solutions with the theme of Let’s Change the Script on Climate Change.
This year, people are invited to add their favorite ocean creatures and activities to the street drawings. Although the art will be celebratory, the message is also serious. The artists hope to highlight some important facts about climate change and ocean health:
• Previous records for ocean temperatures have been smashed for seven years in a row.
• Marine heat waves are endangering marine creatures and ecosystems.
• Ocean acidification, caused by excess CO2 in the atmosphere, is destroying ocean organisms, like coral and fish larvae.
• Warming oceans accelerate melting of sea ice, leading to increasing rates of sea level rise.
• The oceans drive weather, so as ocean heat rises, weather events become more extreme.
• Extreme weather events are costly. A recent study calculated that extreme weather events cost about $16 million per hour.
• Increased ocean heat and marine heatwaves will lead to a die-off of fishing stocks.
• Pollution in marine areas can lead to the development of dead zones, or hypoxia, where oxygen available in the water is insufficient to maintain life — and climate change worsens conditions that cause dead zones.
In May 1972, California activists gathered some 400,000 necessary signatures and crafted a ballot measure for the Coastal Zone Conservation Act. Although oil companies, utilities and developers poured millions into defeating Proposition 20, outspending the people’s campaign by 100 to 1, the measure passed, leading to the establishment of the California Coastal Commission. Public access to beaches was guaranteed and coastal ecosystems were protected.
“With this proud history of activism, now more than ever, we need to protect our ocean from the ravages of climate change, pollution, industrial fishing, and deep sea mining,” the event organizers said.