Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council, fights by reversing, repairing, protecting

By Mark James Miller, originally published in the Santa Maria Times on July 21, 2026

There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” - Rachel Carson

When Union Oil’s Platform A blew out off the coast of Summerland on Jan. 28, 1969, it spewed three million gallons of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Channel.

As people saw beaches turning black and thousands of dead seabirds piling up on shore, a new era in humankind’s relationship with our planet was ushered in.

Right there to meet it was the Community Environmental Council, (CEC) which has never let it up in its battle to save the only Earth we have.

Katie Hershfelt, CEC’s senior communications consultant, says the organization’s raison d’etre “is to help communities move from climate ambition to climate action.”

Reducing greenhouse gases, restoring the natural systems that absorb carbon, and bringing people together in a search for solutions are only some of the ways the CEC is working to achieve these goals.

“In the early 1970s,” says Hershfelt, “few organizations were dedicated to addressing the practical challenges of putting appropriate conservation measures into practice. CEC’s founders made it their goal to fill that void.

“Everyone deserves a safe, healthy, livable climate future,” Hershfelt continues, and since its founding the CEC has been leading the way toward making that future happen.

It would take many pages to list all that the CEC has done over the past 56 years. But a brief sampling gives us some idea:

In 1970, the CEC organized Santa Barbara's — and one of the nation's — first Earth Day celebrations and opened one of America's first ecology centers.

Three years later it created a community learning and resource garden, followed by one of the nation's earliest recycling centers in 1976.

During the 1980s it pioneered hazardous waste collection and curbside recycling, and in 1990 helped secure passage of California's landmark recycling law.

The organization established the Watershed Resource Center at Arroyo Burro Beach in 2001, published one of the country's first carbon neutrality plans in 2007, and helped win Santa Barbara's commitment to 100 percent clean energy in 2017.

A year later it co-founded the Central Coast Climate Justice Network — a coalition of social justice and environmental organizations and leaders committed to a climate movement that advances social, economic, and environmental justice for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

In 2020 the CEC was honored as California’s Nonprofit of the Year. In 2021 it conceived of 5-year strategic plan to “accelerate climate solutions across California’s Central Coast.” The plan called for reversing the speed of climate change, then repairing the damage that has been done, and protecting vulnerable populations from the impact of global warming.

In 2023 the organization opened the region's first Environmental Hub in downtown Santa Barbara, and by 2025 had certified its 227th Climate Steward— a multi-week environmental education course that certifies participants in climate leadership, communication, and community-based sustainability.

To say that the CEC has made a positive impact over the past half-century is a massive understatement.

For the future, the CEC plans to help people on the Central Coast deal with the effects of climate change — hotter days, wildfires, drought, flooding, rising cost of energy — all these are affecting us and need to be addressed.

“We plan to lean into reducing emissions through EVs and electrification, expanding climate solutions on working lands… and cultivate multi-generational climate leaders,” says Hershfelt.

Robert Swan, a British environmentalist, observed that “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

“Everyone can make an impact and help protect our region for future generations,” says Hershfelt, and the CEC offers many ways to do that.

Their website cecsb.org/take-climate-action shows how to get involved. You can also subscribe to their newsletter at cecsb.org.

As the saying goes, “There is no planet B!”