About 40 environmental advocates lined up and joined hands near the water’s edge at Wrightsville Beach May 21 for the annual Hands Across the Sand event that, this year, served as both a protest and a celebration.
Last year’s event protested offshore drilling, but since then, the federal government has announced it won’t allow offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean through 2022.
“And that’s thanks to a lot of people who are here today, who have worked so hard,” said Ethan Crouch, chairman of the Cape Fear Chapter of Surfrider Foundation.
But while he congratulated the group gathered around him at the south end of Wrightsville Beach, he also urged them to shift their focus to other ongoing issues like preventing seismic testing in the Atlantic and seeking a more long-term outlaw of offshore drilling.
“We want to prevent offshore drilling from being included in the next five-year leasing plan,” he said. “We want to permanently protect the Atlantic.”
Many of this year’s Hands Across the Sand participants were also advocating for alternate energy sources like wind and solar.
Wind and sunlight are available off the coast, Cape Fear Sierra Club member Priss Endo said, gesturing to the sparkling whitecaps offshore.
“We just need to capture it,” she said.
Joining hands at Wrightsville Beach, while advocates on 13 other beaches up and down North Carolina’s coast do the same, “shows that we’re united to stop dirty fuels,” she added.
“It represents the solidarity of citizens who call the coast home,” said Kevin Piacenza, offshore drilling campaign coordinator for Surfrider Cape Fear.
One of those local residents in attendance was former Wrightsville Beach Mayor David Cignotti.
“I think it’s very important for the average citizen to become involved in an issue as important as this,” Cignotti said. “I live here at Wrightsville Beach and I don’t understand how anyone who lives at the beach would not be a strong environmentalist.”
Clean energy is the future, Cignotti added.
“We need stop living in the past.”
Most of the environmentalists referenced “the future” when explaining their motivation for taking part in events like Hands Across the Sand—Plastic Ocean Project executive director Bonnie Monteleone simply pointed to her daughter, who was standing next to her.
Endo explained the sentiment by saying, “We’re standing here to protect marine life, to oppose seismic testing and to keep our beaches clean from oil spill, but ultimately we’re standing here because we want to have the healthiest beach for the future.”
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