Join The Society of Fearless Grandmothers, UCSB's Environmental Affairs Board and SBCAN at a rally in downtown Santa Barbara this Friday at 4:30 pm to oppose Exxon's dangerous trucking proposal.
GRANDMOTHERS AND YOUTH TELL COUNTY: DENY EXXON TRUCKING PROPOSAL!
WHO: The Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County Action Network, 350 Santa Barbara, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board, Sunrise Movement-Santa Barbara, Women’s March-Santa Barbara, and other social justice and environmental justice organizations.
WHAT: Rally and March with Elders and Youth in support of the Fridays for Future Global Climate Strike
WHEN: Friday, September 24, Rally at 4:30 PM followed by March
WHERE: Rally at County Administration Building, 105 E. Anapamu, followed by march onto State Street ending at De La Guerra Plaza.
WHY: Elders join with Youth to send a message to Santa Barbara County to DENY the Exxon trucking proposal at the September 29 Planning Commission hearing. Exxon’s dangerous plan to restart aging offshore platforms and transport thousands of gallons of oil over County roads must be stopped. At a time when reducing greenhouse gas emissions is more critical than ever, the proposed project would take us in exactly the opposite direction, accelerating the Climate Crisis with the extreme fires, deadly heatwaves, catastrophic drought, food insecurity, migration, severe economic impacts and suffering now being experienced around the world. The Climate Crisis requires urgent and immediate ACTION!
BACKGROUND: In 2015 the pipeline that transported oil from Exxon’s three offshore oil drilling platforms ruptured causing a nightmarish oil spill that killed wildlife and polluted beaches in Santa Barbara County. The pipeline has not been replaced and the aging platforms have been shut down; however, Exxon is now proposing to resume drilling and transport the oil in trucks -- 70 oil trucks per day -- on our County highways, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for up to 7 years as they develop plans for a new pipeline. It is estimated that more than a million megatons of CO2 will be emitted by this project yearly – at a time when the urgency to reduce greenhouse gases has never been more critical. In response to the recently released Sixth Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science, UN secretary general António Guterres warned: “[This report] is a code red for humanity.”