On June 10, Santa Barbarans of all ages gathered together to send messages to both the President and the County Planning Commission that it is time to end the era of fossil fuels.
As smoke from Canadian wildfires shrouds the Northeast, and scientists sound the alarm about a sharp rise in global average sea surface temperatures and the shrinking levels of Antarctic ice, President Biden needs to declare a climate emergency.
Youth activists from the Sunrise Movement have asked people to sign a petition asking Biden to “use the full power of the DPA (Defense Production Act) to expedite the transition to renewable energy.”
In Santa Barbara County, we are asking the Planning Commissioners to once again reject Exxon’s plans to resuscitate the old pipeline that spilled over 100,00 gallons of crude oil on our beaches in 2015. Apart from foreseeable damage to local ecosystems, which is reason enough to deny Exxon’s permits, when are we going to admit that there is no more room for fossil fuel extraction and rising greenhouse gas emissions? It really is time to end the era of fossil fuels.
