Clean Hands Protest Dirty Energy

"Hands Across the Sand" - a global action to protest off-shore drilling for oil - happened today at beaches in nearly every time zone around the world, including Fairfield's Penfield Beach.

Beginning at 11 a.m., families and individuals from Fairfield, as well as from Greenwich, New Canaan, New Fairfield, Bridgeport, Redding and beyond, began assembling at Penfield Beach under a blue tent to register for the event.

All were asked to plan to hold hands in a line for 15 minutes beginning at noon, as were people all over the world - in Turkey, France, Germany, Spain, England, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Peru, South Africa, Italy, Greece, Panama, Poland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

At 11:45, Courtney Pal and Gita Abhiraman, students at Saxe Middle School in New Canaan, broadcast a message on a loudspeaker at the beach, 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. At noon, please join us in holding hands across the sand."

Close to noon, about 90 pre-registrants headed to the shoreline and began to form a line.

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

By 12:15, 352 pairs of hands had locked with other hands to form a line extending nearly the length of Penfield's long shoreline, in the estimation of 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 uncontrolled oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico - when thousands of Floridians gathered at more than 90 beaches to hold hands in lines 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 moveon.org and 350.org., and one of hundreds worldwide.

Pal and Abhiraman were in the midst of packing for summer adventures - Pal to start Environmental Science Camp at Hotchkiss on Sunday and Abhiraman to head to China in two days - when they learned about the event and dashed to Penfield from New Canaan.

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

Dan Fischer, a junior at Wesleyan from Fairfield who joined the line, said it was time to abolish off-shore drilling and all forms of "dirty" energy.

John and Abby Bates came from Greenwich to support the work their son, William, 26, is doing with the environmental organization 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 today at Coney Island in Brooklyn, 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."

Lela Florel, an artist from Bridgeport, created a poster for the event. On one side was "what I like" - the words solar, wind, geothermal - and the other "what I don't like" - a pastiche of images of oil-slicked whales, dolphins, birds, turtles and other creatures killed in the Gulf from the oil deluge.

"I am extremely concerned. We're poisoning the planet," she said. "This is way overdue. We need massive changes for clean energy."

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 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.