In this E-letter:
HTO invited onto stakeholder committee working on the implementation plan for $650M in wastewater infrastructure projects
How to stop receiving junk mail
PLEASE VOTE on Tuesday, November 2!
Support HTO Friday, November 5, at the Wine & Design art event featuring Paul Greene’s ocean photography!
Just in Time for Veterans Day... the Curtin Jack-Up rig has arrived and is starting work on the first of two leaking oil wells off Summerland Beach. This picture was taken Tuesday night by HTO supporter Nora McNeely Hurley. Nora's Manitou Foundation contributed greatly to the project by funding the technical work of HTO Advisory Board Member Harry Rabin to work with State Lands-contracted engineers to plan the project.
Emissions Stopped, And We Could Suddenly See Blue Sky, All Over the World
COVID-19 in Wastewater - The Canary in the Coal Mine
Art Imitating Life - Climate Change
Summerland Oil Update
Fighting for Clean Groundwater - Both Shallow and Deep
Social Injustice of Plastics, Beach Cleanups, Styrofoam Recycling, and More!
The propellers are turning on our Flying Whale, to celebrate Heal the Ocean’s Imaginary Gala 2020!
Heal the Ocean's Fantasy Chair Julia Louis-Dreyfus invites you to Heal the Ocean's Imaginary Gala 2020. It is guaranteed to be the Best Party You Never Went To.
Heal the Ocean inaugurated the Imaginary Event in 2011, and it instantly sold out. We’re glad to bring our current Imaginary Gala fundraiser to GoFundMe because it is a benefit that everyone can participate in - and we want the Flight of the Flying Whale to include you!
Help us reach our Imaginary (but real) Goal of the Sky as the Limit. Your donation gets you a ticket to the best, most fun, cloud-filled, event!
THE GREAT PUMPKIN TO LAND IN SUMMERLAND – THE CURTIN BARGE!
Help Sea Birds: Please Cut your Mask Strings!
The Real Skinny on Plastic Recycling
PLEASE VOTE – Early and Safely
What do YOU vote for? (Jack’s I Vote For Video)
HTO's Imaginary Gala nearly sold out!
HTO Newsletter - coming to a mailbox near you!
This special bulletin is to announce that on Thursday, September 24, 2020, Heal the Ocean has elected Tom White to its Board of Directors.
Tom White is well-known in Santa Barbara as the owner, with his son, Adam, of the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company, the Boat House (at Hendry’s Beach); the FisHouse Restaurant on Cabrillo, and Casa Blanca Restaurant on lower State Street.
He’s been involved with the ocean for many years – as a fisherman, surfer, sailor. When Heal the Ocean formed in 1998, Tom commissioned a thick glass backboard to the Oyster Bar at the FisHouse…
HTO Flags are Flying on State Street!
Speaking of Birthdays – meet Remi, HTO Poster Baby!
HTO Imaginary Gala Selling Out – Hurry, Hurry!
CCC Reviewing Permit for Revised Summerland Oil Capping
Bring Your Own Reusable Bag to (Some) Grocery Stores Again!
Our Own Heather Wins Best Feature at Honolulu Film Fest!
Carbon2Cobalt Shirts and Trunks
Soon out – HTO’s 2020 Newsletter – send us your address to get it!
Please Don’t Trash Our Beaches – and Happy Labor Day to All
COVID-19 forced grocery stores and other markets to use single-use plastic bags to reduce the spread of the virus to store workers handling personal reusable bags. As a result, tons of single-use plastic bags have gone out of stores and into the waste stream.
GOOD NEWS! There are stores that have reinstalled plastic bag bins, where you can take your bags, for recycling. Heal the Ocean researched, and called, to verify that the following stores have instated their recycling bins/programs for your single-use plastic bags! Please patronize these stores, and use their bins…
Today, Monday, June 8, 2020, is World Oceans Day, and this year it comes with a call to world leaders to protect 30% of our blue planet by 2030. With recent world troubles that are very serious, we have become more aware than ever how connected we all are, from one end of the planet to the other, all people and continents are connected by the ocean. . .Everyone can give back to our ocean, so, on this World Oceans Day, please consider taking one or more of the following actions:
Heal the Ocean stands in solidarity with those speaking out against the racial injustices facing our Black Community and Communities of Color.The fight to protect the environment is interconnected to social justice issues, and environmental goals cannot be achieved without fighting for social justice for marginalized communities. The term intersectional environmentalism describes what exists, and it is important to understand this phenomenon as we move forward solving environmental problems.
Typically, Giving Tuesday takes place on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as a way to encourage people to support local nonprofits during the biggest shopping season of the year. This year, for the first time, the founders of Giving Tuesday have launched #GivingTuesdayNow, a global day of giving and unity set to take place Tuesday (tomorrow), May 5, 2020, as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19.
Today, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and this year we’re not mingling with our friends and co-workers around our various booths in a Santa Barbara city park. This makes many of us sad. But there’s another way to look at it. Something far more serious is taking place, and it is this. . .
Last week HTO shared two E-Letters with our subscribers regarding a recent LA Times article discussing the possibility of COVID-19 in the ocean. The below E-Letter is COVID-19 in the Ocean? Part II.
The public response to our E-Letters was fantastic. However, we do have a correction to make. We previously said in COVID-19 in the Ocean? Part II: “As an atmospheric chemist, Prather’s work is focused on aerosol transport of the COVID-19 virus, people to people, including beach-goers. She was never studying the possibility of the virus getting into the ocean and becoming airborne in wave action for surfers and ocean-swimmers to breathe.”. . .
A week ago today (Thursday, April 2, 2020) the Los Angeles Times ran a story, “Coronavirus at beaches? Surfers, swimmers should stay away, scientist says.” Written by a reporter Rosanna Xia, the article described the work of celebrated Scripps Institution scientist Kim Prather finding that the COVID-19 virus can make its way to the ocean through wastewater and/or land-based runoff, then becoming churned by an ocean wave into a “giant sneeze” that surfers and ocean swimmers could inhale. . .
We came across this video (four minutes, in Italian, with subtitles) which you can view by clicking on the image of Earth below. Please click Full Screen at the start.
There is nothing positive to say about death, economic devastation, and sorrow brought to the world by the Coronavirus pandemic - but it has forced us all to stop. This presentation makes us wonder if, when this terribleness is over, can humankind, with our ultra-high science, technology, and innovation, put our activities and commerce back together again in a better way. . .
