“Hands Across the Sand” Deliver Strong Message at East End Beach; Yesterday Afternoon

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State Representative John Hinck at Hands Across the Sand Rally

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 814)

All across the country and around the world, including York and Rye, New Hampshire,  people  joined  hands on beaches yesterday to call attention to  the wreckless effort of some  who are renewing the call for off shore drilling, said John Demos,  of the Alaska Wilderness League, one of the sponsors of the rally.  “Proponents of off-shore drilling claim that  it will drive down the cost of oil – that’s a fallacy.  We consume 25% of the worlds’ oil and we only have 3% of the oil reserves.  In other words 97% of the oil reserves are outside of the U.S.,” Demos said before the rally at the East End Beach  began. 

“That drilling and putting a small amount of oil into the international market,  driven by supply and demand, is going to make any difference in the price of gas is ludicrous.   We are causing potential harm to our pristine beaches and to our wilderness like the Artic National Wildlilfe Reserve in northeast Alaska and the Artic Oceans off northern Alaska.  We need to reduce our dependence on oil with alternative sources of clean energy,” Demos said.

Jon Hinck, a state legislator and attorney, said:  “I support these efforts to protect our ocean.  We need a carbon budget.  How much carbon can we put up there before affecting us down here,” he asked, pointing to the sky.   “There is some hope.  We can stop burning coal and get off oil.  Gas has less carbon that the other two sources of energy.”  Hinck represented fishermen and native villagers in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill back in the late 1980s. 

Because of the lousy weather, fewer people attended the 2nd  “Hands Across the Sand” event than last year. At the conclusion of the speeches  about 40 people joined hands across the sand as did people all over the country and the world.

For more information, please visit www.oceana.org / bhayman@oceana.org and  John Demos at www.AlaskaWild.org/ john@alaskawild.org. organizers of the rally.