Hands Across The Sand:In Opposition to Offshore Drilling,

Hands Across The Sand:In Opposition to Offshore Drilling, This Saturday Activists Nationwide Join Hands

By Nathan Ehrlich
06/24/2010

Photo courtesy of Surfrider Foundation Florida Chapter

On February 13, 2010, thousands of people synchronously gathered on numerous Florida beaches in order to join hands. The reason for this unification of 10,000 Floridians from over 60 towns and cities was a message: “No to offshore drilling. Yes to clean energy.” This Saturday, June 26, there will be another hand joining session, only this one will be national.

The man behind the event is Dave Rauschkolb. A year ago Rauschkolb was a restaurant owner, surfer, and for the most part a pacifist from Seaside, Florida. But after the Florida House of Representatives began working to pass a bill permitting the ban on off shore drilling to be lifted, just three miles off the coast of Seaside, Rauschkolb became a galvanized environmental activist. The February 13th demonstration, which he dubbed “Hands Across The Sand,” was his creation. And now Hands Across the Sand is coming to a beach near you.

With the help of environmental groups such as Audubon, the Sierra Club, and Greenpeace, which has dispatched 500 volunteers to numerous states, people will be joining hands on America’s shores.

What will a demonstration such as this actually accomplish? Shortly after activists joined hands last February, Republican Dean Cannon, who wrote the bill that outraged Rauschkolb, abandoned the effort saying, “It’s not the right time to vote on this issue.” Perhaps if enough people literally hold hands, the show of support for clean energy and for a moratorium on offshore drilling will provoke some amount of governmental action. It would certainly be timely.

Yesterday, Martin Feldman, a federal judge in New Orleans, granted a preliminary injunction, effectively halting President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling. Feldman wrote in his decision that, “The court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium.” Furthermore, many political analysts are predicting that President Barrack Obama will not be able to pass a clean energy bill through the Senate that has both a comprehensive limit on carbon emissions and significant fuel economy standards.

The instructions for participants of Hands Across America are as follows: Step 1, “Go to your beach on June 26 at 11 am in your time zone;” Step 2, “Form lines in the sand and at 12:00 join hands.” Here in New York City, the demonstrations will be held at Coney Island and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and High Line Park in Manhattan.

"People in love hold hands," says Rauschkolb. "People who want to change the world join hands.” If you want to get involved, check for participating beaches near you at the organization’s website www.handsacrossthesand.com.