Remembering the Exxon Valdez: 20 Years Later, What Have We Learned? March 5, 2009

Photojournalist Natalie Fobes and Cordova author-activist Dr. Riki Ott will be featured in a special memorial of the big spill’s 20th anniversary at REI Seattle on March 5, 7 PM.

Seattle-based photographer Natalie Fobes was one of the first photographers on the scene of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Under contract for National Geographic, she spent the next three months hitchhiking on boats, float planes and helicopters in order to capture the oil’s deadly impact on wildlife and people.

Natalie’s presentation will include excerpts from her personal journals as well as her award-winning photographs.

Riki will discuss safeguards implemented in the wake of the nation's largest oil spill and the nature of social change. What changed and how? Are the safeguards adequate? What still needs to change.

She will discuss not only acute spills, but everyday oil pollution spilling from our vehicle exhausts and coal- and oil-fired power plants. She offers thought-provoking reasons and remedies to reduce our oil dependency -- the true legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

This 20th anniversary memorial and discussion are especially timely in light of current legislation before the Washington State legislature requiring oil and shipping companies to fully fund a standby tugboat to rescue distressed vessels along the Washington Coast and the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

“Twenty years have passed,” said Fobes. “But I don’t want anyone to forget the tragedy or the lessons of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It happened in Prince William Sound. It can happen in Puget Sound.”

“REMEMBERING THE EXXON VALDEZ: 20 YEARS LATER, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?” is an “Exploring Puget Sound” presentation sponsored by People For Puget Sound, www.pugetsound.org.

Admission is $6 People For Puget Sound members, $8 non-members. For tickets and reservations, contact Jamie Wine, jwine@pugetsound.org, (206) 382-7007.