Clean Hands Join to Protest Dirty Oil

At 11:45 a.m. Sunday, Saxe Middle School students, Courtney Pal and Gita Abhiraman, students at Saxe Middle School, broadcast a message on a loudspeaker at Penfield Beach in Fairfield, where hundreds of sunbathers were basking in the near 90-degree heat.

"In just 15 minutes at 12 noon, masses of people will be joining hands across the sand to raise awareness to protect our oceans," they announced. "Right here at Penfield, we would love for you to join in to support this movement."

About 90 pre-registrants for the event—part of a global action to protest offshore oil drilling repeated in countries from the United States to France to China and Brazil—headed to the shoreline.

The line started to grow. And grow. And grow.

By 12:15, 352 pairs of hands had locked with other hands extending nearly the full length of Penfield's shoreline, according to estimates by lifeguards Michael Grant and Dennis Tagoza.

Christine Sander, a science teacher and mother of young children living in Fairfield, coordinated the event. She was gratified that so many sunbathers and beachgoers joined ranks with the activists on such short notice.

"They obviously don't want tar balls washing up on their beach," said Sander.

"That was the best part—people joining up spontaneously," said Pal. "It shows the power of the movement and the support of the people."

The "Hands Across the Sand" campaign began in Florida last February—before the catastrophic British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico—when thousands of Floridians gathered at more than 90 beaches to protest legislative efforts to lift a ban on oil drilling off the Florida coast. The campaign went national and then international in the wake of the BP disaster.

The event at Penfield was one of several planned along the Connecticut shoreline by means of e-mail list alerts, including those of online advocacy groups MoveOn.org and 350.org.

New Canaanites Pal and Abhiraman were in the midst of packing for summer adventures—Pal for Environmental Science Camp at Hotchkiss and Abhiraman for China—when they learned about the event and dashed to Penfield.

"I couldn't not come," Abhiraman said. "The idea of being in a public place to raise awareness was too important."

Anna Loper, who advises the Global Warming Club at Saxe Middle School in New Canaan to which Pal and Abhiraman belong, also brought along her daughter, Abby Novia, who spent a day on the Louisiana coastline not long after the BP oil rig exploded. She said fishermen there were told they would be fined $30,000 if they pitched in to siphon off the oil with their fishing vessels.

"They were very frustrated that their hands were tied and nothing was being done to capture the oil," she said.

Hugh Karraker of Redding said he joined the event to protest the recent federal court decision vacating the Obama administration's moratorium on new offshore deepwater drilling permits.

"The BP spill is a reminder of what can happen when the oil industry is not regulated sufficiently," he said.

John and Abby Bates came from Greenwich to support the work their son, William, 26, is doing with 350.org to raise environmental awareness of climate change. William Bates has traveled to 23 countries with 350.org and was at a "Hands Across the Sand" event at Coney Island Sunday, they said.

"Even little events, like this, will lead to action and big results," said John Bates, a math teacher at Greenwich Country Day School. "You have to take the first step before you take the second."