Environmental activists will join hands on Wrightsville Beach near Johnnie Mercer’s Pier at Public Beach Access No. 16 to peacefully protest offshore drilling for oil and coal. During Hands Across the Sand, Saturday, May 16, from 6-7 p.m., protests will take place in eight other communities in North Carolina, including Kure Beach, and in 13 other states.
Lindsey Deignan, vice chair of the Surfrider Foundation’s Cape Fear chapter, is helping organize the Wrightsville Beach protest.
“I found out about it through Surfrider,” she said. “Surfrider is a national sponsor of Hands Across the Sand. Due to scheduling conflicts, we had to push the time back to 6 p.m.,” Deignan said. The Kure Beach protest will still take place at noon.
Deignan encourages participants to arrive at 6 p.m. sharp. They will complete a brief registration process before holding hands.
“We’ll be holding hands for about five minutes or so,” Deignan said. Photographers will be on site to capture photo and video footage.
After the protest, participants can learn more about local environmental concerns.
“We’ll have some information about offshore drilling,” Deignan said.
Deignan, a marine biology Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, has a thorough understanding of aquatic environmental concerns.
“I follow the developments in offshore drilling across the East Coast,” she said.
However, offshore drilling is not the protest’s only focus.
“I don’t want it to be a strictly negative campaign,” Deignan said. “It’s a show of support for renewable energy. We want to get a good show of people to show Pat McCrory that the people of North Carolina aren’t all for offshore drilling.”
This is Deignan’s first year helping with Hands Across the Sand in Wrightsville Beach.
“I’d like to see 50 people. I’d be thrilled to see 100,” she said.
Sophia Lanza, who is also a local environmental activist, is the social media coordinator for the Wrightsville Beach protest.
“I’ve been a very active member of this community and different environmental events for six years,” she said.
To educate the public about renewable energy, Lanza will set up model wind farms in Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach during the Hands Across the Sand events.
“In comparison to an oil rig, a wind farm is a nice thing,” she said. Each model farm will contain 50 3-foot windmills.
Lanza encourages people to research offshore drilling on the website for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management —
www.boem.gov.
“We have a very short time to comment before the government decides to start offshore drilling,” she said. “If a certain number [of comments] is met, the plan will be taken off the drawing board.”
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