Hands Across the Sand – Anchorage, Alaska
Just returned from the Hands Across the Sand event in Anchorage. Thanks to those who have sent photos from your location! I’ll be posting them soon.
Over 100 people gathered in Anchorage at Pt. Woronzof to say NO to offshore oil drilling and YES to a future with clean renewable sources of energy. The sooner we start acting like we realize fossil fuels are finite, and harmful, the sooner we will embrace sources of energy like wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, and tidal power, and put the full focus of our human ingenuity and creative thinking behind a sustainable future, the better off we will be.
Today, we stood together in solidarity with the people of the Gulf as Alaskans, as survivors of oil tragedy, and as cohabitants of the planet.
~The Waters of Cook Inlet from Anchorage
~Anchorage Community Organizer of Hands Across the Sand, Alissa Nagel
~More than 100 people joined hands
Organizer Jason Weir
~The end of the line… and why we care.
~Shannyn Moore and Zach Roberts interview Walter Hickel’s grandson Ryan.
~Shannyn Moore holds a quart of crude oil from the Exxon Valdez spill. It was collected off the beach by Professor Rick Steiner in 2002, more than a decade after Exxon said cleanup was done.
That jar of oil and WHEN it was collected should somehow make it to the MSM….AND to the politicians of the Gulf Coast states before they open their mouths up again like Jindall has about returning to drilling….
From the reports I’ve heard, beaches are much easier to clean up than the wetlands which can be damaged more by the cleanup than the oil itself. If this much oil is easily collected from the Exxon Valdex spill so many years later, the oil will be devastating the Gulf coast for several generations at least.
For months, conservatives have been screaming about how terrible the Obama administration is for leaving their children and grandchildren in debt as he attempts to prevent a complete economic collapse. However, they are fully supportive of continuing deepwater drilling even though the oil companies freely admit thay cannot prevent and/or contain a leak from another explosion OR repair the damage if another explosion occurs. I suppose it’s okay for our next generations to be wallowing in tar balls and oil-filled oceans as long as they don’t have any tax increases.
I think you’re right. Beaches are easier than wetlands…but YOU CAN’T CLEAN UP AN OIL SPILL…ANYWHERE.
I’m headed to Prince William Sound this week to do some work for the BBC. (AKM will be riding shot gun.)
The oil is still there.
Has Jindal been called to task by the “Ragin Cajun?” Come on Carville!!! P.S. Is there a Palin has banned me from freedom my personal freedom of speech page? I hardly see people disagree with her facebook page. Suspect-for the “drill baby drill” cheerleader.
This is a tough one guys. If I lived in an area with drilling and that paid the bills… I want safe drilling but not paying the rent is real to these folks.
Let’s move forward to give them options…
The BBC, eh? You elitist international liberal you. Congratulations.
The so-called conservatives made all this possible, by cheering on decade after decade of deregulation and the dismantling of our safety net. It began under their patron St. Ronnie Raygun, continued under Bush I, expanded under Clinton, and went absolutely hog wild under Shrub. If I live to be as old as Methuselah, I can never forgive them. The banks, insurance companies, and other service businesses that used to take care of their local communities turned their backs on Main St. and gave all OUR money to Wall St. They fiddled while Rome burned, giving tax breaks to corporations for shipping OUR jobs overseas. The only people who counted were executives and shareholders, who made out like the robber barons of the gilded age. In Rhode Island last week, a multimillion dollar estate passed to its heirs TAX FREE. Why? Because the Rethuglic Party was smart enough to call it the “death tax” instead of the “estate tax.” What we need is that kind of buzzword branding, something the simpletons can chant. Whether it’s deepwater drilling or mountaintop removal, this is not our energy solution. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: the only President whose energy policy I’ve ever agreed with was Jimmy Carter. I don’t mean to rant, but if I don’t, my head might explode a la Scanners. What this corporatocracy has done is worse than premeditated murder.
Such a wonderful way to spend a day! Thanks for sharing!
Brian certainly looks handsome, as always. I just knew he had to be an enthusiastic environmentalist!
I was at Point Woronzoff with my grandson. It was a very positive experience and we met so many great people. Very happy I went. I just read some great reports from Florida events. I think I read their governor participated.
Thank you for being on the beach that I could not be on.
What amazing pictures. I really liked the one of Shannyn holding the jar of crude oil— from more than 10 years after the Exxon-Valdez spill. You guys are amazing for covering the news like you do. Thank you for this post, AKM and Shannyn.
This is totally O/T. Will Mudflats be posting the comments from journalists covering the latest Palin speech? Joan Walsh has a column up at http://www.salon.com/news/politics/sarah_palin/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/politics/2010/06/26/journalists_trash_palin_speech
Mentioned in the following “Boots on the Ground” post!
What a great turnout! Great photos…except the upsetting one of Shannyn and the quart of oil. Thank you to all the Alaskans who are making such an invaluable contribution toward sorting out the truth about the disaster in the Gulf and moving us responsibly forward.
wow to the photos, sez lotsa words.
I wish i could have been there , thank you all, you’ve done anchor town proud.
I attended the Manhattan event, but it must have been at the other end of the High Line, because the only other attendees I met were two lovely women from North Carolina, who couldn’t be at their home event because of their travels. I took their picture; they took mine. I breathed in the aroma of the wildflowers planted on the High Line, basked in the sun, breathed deeply of the river. Then I proceeded down to the pier, prayed, and cast my wheatgrass on the water blade by blade. I played my tuning forks for health and peace. I thanked the full moon for (invisibly) shining on us. Then I went home, pleased to have gone though I didn’t find the crowd I expected. These things happen — according to the email, we were to meet at the Gansevoort St. end of the park, but I didn’t get there at 11 and they may have moved uptown. In any event, it was a lovely day, and I was handholding in spirit, if not in the flesh.
p.s. Kudos to Anchorage for such a great turnout.
I’m so glad I was there.
Wish I could have been in Kenai. Had to work. Was very much there in spirit (even if our mortgage depends on oil right now–nothing to do with offshore drilling though, thank goodness).
I’ve posted my photos & a slideshow of the Anchorage event at Henkimaa. (They actually live in my Flickr photostream, so they can be viewed there as well.)
great pictures, you guys are wonderful
How can Alaskan politicians support off shore drilling when first hand they know that it is not possible to “CLEAN” an oil spill? Has our leadership succumbed to getting to the resource at any price, even if ultimately it means paying with the very conditions needed for life itself? We must stand strong and make these long term costs known, emotionally connecting our current choices to the damage which surely remain if we continue making these selfish choices. Yesterday at Sand Across Homer Sands, people cried their dreams, sighed with disgust there frustration of leaders not listening, applied the knowledge they were independently gaining to install solar PV, wind turbines, pressing for net metering, making tough choices between what we have become used to and what serves the greatest good. The future is now and we are the ones shaping it for our children. All native people’s are crying out loud for developed nations to cease and desist this stripping of Earth. What wild will remain when even here in Alaska our own wilderness refuge, set aside as the last honored place for wild, called by natives the place where life begins, is stripped, developed, waters polluted, for oil. Do we really love our comforts more than all of this?
Love the photos. It looks a bit chilly there in Anchorage.
Ugh, that last pic of Sahnnon and her jar is exactly why I’m glad Pres. Obama pushed for the escrow account funded by BP…..we can’t trust these industry hack to do what’s right!
My sister said there were over 200 people at the beach in CT where she was for this event….I’ll ask her to send some pics to AKM.
*Shannyn* Sorry about that!
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/new_haven_cty/%27hands-across-the-sand%27-in-madison
I organized 250 people at Hammonasset Beach in Madison, CT! I’m ChiCat’s sister.
