{"id":184,"date":"2010-02-14T23:37:39","date_gmt":"2010-02-14T23:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=184"},"modified":"2010-02-14T23:37:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-14T23:37:39","slug":"jacksonville-people-hold-hands-across-the-sand-to-protest-offshore-drilling-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2010\/02\/14\/jacksonville-people-hold-hands-across-the-sand-to-protest-offshore-drilling-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville: People hold hands across the sand to protest offshore drilling in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/news\/metro\/2010-02-14\/story\/people_hold_hands_across_the_sand_to_protest_offshore_drilling_in_flori_0<\/a>
\nJacksonville.com
\nJacksonville, Florida
\nPeople hold hands across the sand to protest offshore drilling in Florida
\nA statewide initiative was planned on Florida’s coasts.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 BY MAGGIE FITZROY
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 STORY UPDATED AT 1:18 AM ON SUNDAY, FEB. 14, 2010
\nMAGGIE FITZROY\/The Times-Union
\nScores of people hold hands at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville Beach to protest possible off-shore oil drilling in Florida, part of a statewide “Hands Across the Sand” initiative.<\/p>\n

Scores of people lined up on the shoreline in Jacksonville Beach on Saturday afternoon and held hands for 10 minutes as they looked out at the ocean.<\/p>\n

As part of a statewide initiative called “Hands Across the Sand,” they joined thousands who planned to hold hands up and down Florida’s beaches at 1:30 p.m. to protest the possibility of oil drilling off the state’s coasts.<\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Beach event, which met at the foot of Beach Boulevard, was organized by the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol. And as suggested on the project’s Web site, www.handsacrossthesand.org<\/a>, participants began gathering on the beach at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

“It’s been in the news that the Legislature wants to allow offshore drilling, but we are a fragile ecological state,” said Valerie Pickett of Atlantic Beach, who arrived with her daughter Dawson, 17, and neighbor Diana Froehlich, 18.<\/p>\n

“We don’t need to have the issue of possible oil spills or contamination of our waters,” she said.<\/p>\n

Steve Fouraker of Atlantic Beach, who came with several friends, said he doesn’t want to see “unsightly platforms” off the coasts, and would rather see alternative energy sources explored.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully people feel strongly enough that they can brave being cold for 10 minutes,” said Sea Turtle Patrol director Jennifer Burns as she watched people arrive at the otherwise nearly empty beach. She said she was pleased with the turnout, despite unseasonably cold weather around the state, and hoped for good turnouts in other planned locations as well, including a protest organized by Surfrider Foundation at the St. Augustine Beach pier.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Antman, who attended the St. Augustine protest as a member of the Duval County Audubon Society, said later that day that about 50 people came to that event just south of the city’s pier. “The morning was cold and gray,” and “it’s not a beach time of the year,” she said.”So I’m pretty well pleased that many showed up.”<\/p>\n

While oil drilling is being considered off the Gulf Coast, “theoretically, they could drill around the entire coastline,” Burns said. While Saturday’s protest was the only one planned so far, “depending on how it moves along through the government, we might hold other events,” she said.<\/p>\n

Tom Larson of Jacksonville Beach, who came as a member of the Sierra Club and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said “the coastal and estuarine environment of Florida is exposed to great risk” if oil drilling proposals are pursued.<\/p>\n

Damage from oil spills around the world have proven almost impossible to repair, in addition, there is not that much oil off Florida, compared to what world markets demand, he said.
\n“Florida stands on tourism, and offering the world our wonderful scene. We’d be putting that at risk for the relatively minor benefits of this local oil.”<\/p>\n

maggie.fitzroy@shorelines.com<\/a>, (904) 249-4947, ext. 6320.
\nspecial thanks to Richard Charter ________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/news\/metro\/2010-02-14\/story\/people_hold_hands_across_the_sand_to_protest_offshore_drilling_in_flori_0 Jacksonville.com Jacksonville, Florida People hold hands across the sand to protest offshore drilling in Florida A statewide initiative was planned on Florida’s coasts. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 BY MAGGIE FITZROY \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 STORY UPDATED AT 1:18 AM ON SUNDAY, FEB. 14, 2010 MAGGIE FITZROY\/The Times-Union Scores of people hold hands at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville … Continue reading Jacksonville: People hold hands across the sand to protest offshore drilling in Florida<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}