Organized by local representatives from the Sierra Club and the Gulf Restoration Network, the “Hands Across the Sand” movement will come to the riverside park behind Audubon Zoo at 11 a.m. Saturday.
According to Jonathan Henderson of the Gulf Restoration Network:
Let’s all take a moment this Saturday and join hands to protect our coasts from dangerous offshore drilling and to restore the Gulf of Mexico. For the second annual “Hands Across the Sand” worldwide event, we will be standing together with tens of thousands of people all over the world to make a positive statement for a clean energy future. This is a good time for us all to refelect upon the disaster that unfolded on our beaches and shores all across the Gulf, and to show unity as we move forward in the fight for our collective healthy Gulf future.
It’s been over a year since the BP drilling disaster began and Congress has yet to pass legislation to restore or protect the Gulf or our communities. Congress needs to direct BP’s Clean Water Act fines back to the Gulf so that we can restore our threatened ecosystems. Our elected officials also must act to give impacted communities the ability to monitor future oil and gas activity by creating a Gulf of Mexico Regional Citizen’s Advisory Council.
