As regular readers know, FilterForGood and the Surfrider Foundation have teamed** up to promote clean water. This effort includes both encouraging green individual lifestyle choices, like ditching the disposable water bottle habit as FilterForGoodians have already done — and bigger collective actions to keep our environment clean.

And right now, Surfrider Foundation needs your help with one of these bigger issues: The threat of offshore oil drilling.

Fights to stop new offshore oil drilling are ongoing in Florida, North Carolina — and, close to home for me, California. Thought the California coast was protected from offshore drilling? It was — for decades, in fact. But in 2008, moratoriums on offshore drilling expired — which means some politicians and dirty energy companies are looking into start drilling for profit. As you can imagine, environmentalists oppose new drilling — as do some industries that would be adversely affected by a polluted, ugly-looking coastline. According to Surfrider:

California’s coastlines are the pillar of its economy and the foundation of thriving fishing and tourism industries. In addition, offshore oil drilling and oil spills have the potential to critically impact some of the state’s most pristine marine ecosystems and lead to an industrialization of the coastline.

That’s why Surfrider Foundation, along with another eco-nonprofit called Environment California,** is gearing up to fight for the coastlines through educational meetings. At each of these events, staff from Surfrider Foundation and Environment California, as well as environmental activists and local community members, will come together to discuss what the threats associated with drilling are, and how communities can fight them. The first of these happen in March in Southern California:**

• March 3, 2010, 7 pm – 8 pm: Encinitas Community Center: 1140 Oakcrest Park Dr., Encinitas.
• March 17, 2010, 7 pm – 8 pm: Santa Monica Library – Fairview Branch, 2101 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica.

Additional meetings in the Central Coast and Northern California will be announced in March. Attend, and you’ll find out more about the threats of offshore drilling — and what you can do as an individual and as part of your local community to keep oil rigs at bay. Plus, if you come to the Santa Monica meeting, say hello to me — I’ll be there learning too!

In the meantime, follow Surfrider’s anti offshore drilling blog, Not the Answer,** to stay on top of environmental efforts to halt offshore drilling.

Image courtesy of Surfrider Foundation

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