How Did The 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill Change The World

The 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill When something bad happens, do we only focus on the bad or should we also see and acknowledge the good as well? Well, that question fits perfectly with my topic for this paper. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill fits this question, since it was a very bad event, but it has changed California and most of the world for the better. Jon Hamilton says that the spill "turned beaches black and the nation green" (Hamilton). Hamilton writes this and I couldn’t have said it any better. Marshall Terrill says that “The spill did have one positive outcome: It was the impetus for Earth Day, which marks the birth of the modern environmental movement” (Terrill). This spill did not just make Californians more environmentally conscious,

In his interview, Terrill also says that “The spill did have one positive outcome: It was the impetus for Earth Day, which marks the birth of the modern environmental movement” (Terrill). It was very important for him to point this out. Even good came from the terrible event. Also, he further explains the spill's wider implications, showing that it was a wake-up call for the American society to realize the environmental consequences of industrial developments that are not kept in check. Overall, he thinks that we need to be more conscious of what happens in our world. While Hamilton primarily focuses on the immediate effects of the oil spill and its effects on public awareness, Terrill dives deeper into this event’s historical importance, by tracing its legacy to the making of Earth Day. Terrill also emphasizes how the oil spill started mobilizing grassroots activism (a grassroots movement is a movement that uses people in a certain area for a political or economic movement) and developing a larger cultural movement towards environmental