Commercial diving industry legend Lad Handelman, the founder of two New York Stock Exchange companies, Cal Dive International and Oceaneering International, has made his mark on the subsea industry in countless ways. His history demonstrates a strong commitment to the environment, including spending sixteen years in marine mammal and other resource protection activities, and hundreds of thousands of dollars replanting abalone in the Channel Islands. He calls himself a “reality-based steward of the ocean” and as such, Lad is co-founder of SOS California. He has facilitated extensive study and science-based research regarding the environmental impact of natural seep pollution in the ocean and learned that the greatest source of petroleum pollution in American waters is Natural Seeps – responsible for 63%.
Mr. Handelman proffers that the nation’s environmental policies are actually “strangling America” by its own irrational choices, e.g. blocking all future offshore development “regardless of the crying need for energy… regardless of the environmental consequences from foreign oil… regardless of the wasted energy and subsequent new revenue that could be used for education, environmental cleanup, alternative energy…” and so much more.
Read more (link to MJ article)
We Believe:
SOS California is rooted in basic scientific facts surrounding the environmental impact of the prolific natural gas and oil seepage in the Santa Barbara Channel – the largest in the Western Hemisphere, second largest in the world. We believe the public is virtually unaware of the magnitude of natural seep pollution in our Channel. We believe there is a solution to this problem and that within the solution there are a multitude of ways the environment would benefit and be preserved.
Our Goal:
By way of education, our goal is to inspire a grassroots movement to address this problem and ultimately drive a solution that will benefit our ocean, shorelines and atmosphere — for all future generations.”
