Activists in Salt Lake City join hands to protest offshore drilling

SALT LAKE CITY — People in 831 cities around the world joined hands Saturday, drawing with their bodies a symbolic barrier against offshore oil drilling.

In Utah, more than 100 people climbed the hill overlooking the pond at Salt Lake City's Liberty Park to take a stand. A Chevron pipeline along Red Butte Creek cracked June 11, sending an estimated 20,000 gallons of crude oil gushing into the pond. Cleanup crews are still at work, filtering the darkened water.

"Oil, you're done!" protesters shouted as they wound their way through the grassy park to the pond. "You can't spill the sun!"

Jennifer Hamilton, a 32-year-old activist from Salt Lake City, organized the demonstration in tandem with Hands Across the Sand, an international nonprofit based in Florida.

"The image is powerful; the message, simple," said Hands Across the Sand event founder Dave Rauschkolb in a news release. "No to offshore oil drilling; yes to clean energy. … No one industry should be able to place entire coastal economies and marine environments at risk with dangerous, dirty mistakes."

Hamilton said she hoped the protest would raise awareness about the risks of oil drilling — the effects of which many Utahns are now experiencing firsthand.

"We're at war because of oil; it's killing our animals; it's destroying our environment," she said. "It breaks my heart."

Alyssa Kay, a Salt Lake designer, hasn't slept in her home on 1300 South since the oil spill earlier this month. She woke June 12 to the smell of oil fumes. Her 4-year-old son complained of stomach cramps, fatigue and difficulty breathing. He's since been hospitalized twice.

"Dirty energy is making my son sick," Kay told the crowd of protesters. "This has got to stop."

Demonstrators signed a petition asking state legislators to adopt policies encouraging clean and renewable energy sources and pledged to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

"We need to take ownership of this problem," said Seth Walker, a poet from Austin, Texas. "I'm responsible for this oil spill. I drive a truck. I use oil. It's my fault."

Representatives from several other activist groups including Urban Village Cooperative, Sustain Utah, Peaceful Uprising and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, joined in on the protest.

Tim DeChristopher, 28, a Salt Lake climate activist with Peaceful Uprising, implored the crowd to continue working together to effect change.

"We can't ask our political leaders to help us if we're not willing to help ourselves," he said. "Together, we create a powerful force."

e-mail: estuart@desnews.com