Marking 50 Years of Environmental Leadership on the SB Oil Spill Anniversary

On January 28, 1969 an oil blowout in the Santa Barbara channel sparked a worldwide environmental movement. CEC formed in response shortly after and has been rallying the community to action ever since. Watch the January 27, 2019 community gathering.

Fifty years ago today, the largest oil spill in U.S. history spewed more than four million gallons of crude oil onto Santa Barbara’s beaches – killing thousands of birds and sea life. Following the spill, local volunteers, activists and reporters worked heroically to respond to the devastation – cleaning oil-slicked wildlife, spreading straw on beaches to sop up oil, documenting contamination, and capturing images that were broadcast around the globe. Activists mobilized to create organizations and regulations that are the foundation of our environmental protections today.

This week, major media outlets locally and across the country – NPR Science Desk, Bloomberg News, SF Chronicle, Energywire, and more – have paid tribute to the role our community played in launching the modern environmental movement.Yet with fossil fuels now contributing to the even greater threat of climate change, our work is far from done (see my article with Linda Krop of the Environmental Defense Center in today's Independent).

Yesterday, CEC and our partners filled the Arlington Theater to near-capacity, calling on the 1,800 attendees to bring forth a new environmental movement that takes swift and all-encompassing action to heal our planet and prevent further harmful climate disruption.

We are making history together.

Thank you for helping CEC power a movement.

Did you miss the community gathering? Watch it here.