Hoping to give residents a visual reminder of the effect of global warming, a local nonprofit wants to paint 12-inch high blue lines on Santa Barbara curbs to mark how high water levels would rise if Antarctic ice sheets continue to melt. “Our children’s grandchildren deserve no less than our total attention to this issue in the coming years,” Bruce Caron, who heads the project for New Media Studio, wrote to the Santa Barbara City Council. The council will consider the request of New Media’s “Light Blue Line" project at its 2 p.m. meeting Tuesday. The lines would be painted on 68 streets in Santa Barbara, from Shoreline Drive at Loma Alta, Milpas Street to Canon Perdido streets and Cabrillo Boulevard at Highway 101.
They would last five years, when they would be removed or the city repaves the streets. At the request of Mayor Marty Blum and Councilmember Helene Schneider, the council will consider spending $12,000 from its General Fund reserve accounts to pay for the materials and staff time needed. After meeting with officials from the “Light Blue Line" project, city staff originally determined that it would not be a good use of public property. But, due to the education component -- the organization would enlist help from volunteers and coordinate events around the project -- they have recommended approval from the council.
New Media plans to hold a weekend event in September to paint the lines, which would “instant focus the local impacts of potential future climate changes,” Caron wrote.
New Media plans to involve middle and junior high school students, along with the Santa Barbara City Arts Advisory Committee, local artists and the Community Environmental Council. An exhibition called “Drawing the Line Against Climate Change” is currently on display at City Hall. Santa Barbara’s City Arts Advisory Committee and the Visual Art in Public Places Committee approved the Blue Line project in February. The light blue lines signify the water level if the Greenland or the West Antarctic Ice Shelf continue to melt. The lines would also be punctuated with medallions that show the insignia of the project and its Web site, lightblueline.org. The project “teaches us all to ask the difficult questions we need to ask as a community to bring ourselves to change how we live, so that we can work together to keep the ocean down at the waterfront,” Caron wrote. |
