Hands Across the Sand

This past Saturday, June 26, Sustainable Duxbury joined over 900 events around the globe to join hands and form a human line in the sand to say NO to offshore drilling and YES to clean energy. There were events like ours in 37 countries and all 50 states. We were joined with people from all over the area, from other towns such as Sharon, East Bridgewater, and Marshfield. We even had a bike rider join in from the MS bike marathon that was going on in town. He took time from his charity marathon to add his hands and voice to another good cause, the life of the ocean. He was from the North Shore so could not join his local event so he found one near where his bike ride was so he could join in. We had entire families joining hands with us. It was a wonderful and powerful moment to look at the line of people along the edge of the water, standing for clean beaches, clean environment, clean energy.


107 people signed the petition that is being sent to Sierra Club in California. It is a petition to President Obama and states: "Today I joined hands with citizens across the country and around the world. Together, we call on you to say no to offshore drilling, yes to a clean energy future, and get our country off our addiction to oil."

Hands Across the Sand was originally organized by Dave Rauschkolb who is a surfer and restaurant owner from Seaside, Florida. He stated this group back in October, 2009 when the Florida legislature was taking up a bill to lift the ban on offshore drilling off the coast of Florida, well before this disaster in the Gulf. On February 13, 2010, they had 80 beaches sign on for events all over Florida that involved over 10,000 people. The bill has been put on hold. When the BP disaster occured, Dave went global with his event. Partners that have joined in this movement include 350.org, Sierra Club, Audubon, Alaska Wilderness League, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and so many more. Visit handsacrossthesand.org for a listing of more of the groups that supported this event.
We have uploaded photos from our event to the Hands flickr group and you can find this at www.flickr.com/groups/joinhands. There are also many videos from events around the world at youtube. Go to www.youtube.com/user/handsacrossthesand.

To loosely quote the words of Dave Rauschkolb, the disaster in the Gulf is a wake up call. Even as the disaster keeps unfolding and continuing, BP and other oil companies continue to push for new offshore drilling anywhere oil can be found. Offshore oil drilling is a dirty, dangerous business and no one industry should be able to place entire coastal economies and marine environments at risk. We should be a leader in expanding cleaner energy sources yet we still cling to fossil fuels due to the overwhelming influence of oil money.

I am currently reading a book entitled Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit by Tom Rand. This is an man who believes that we can and need to switch to greener technologies and we have those technologies right now. This could be a whole new boost to economy and the earth if we embrace it.