With minute-by-minute scrutiny being paid to the worst environmental disaster in the nation's history, preservationists in Miami-Dade are finding a silver lining to the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico: increased involvement and interest in their efforts. Perhaps the best example of increased local and national concern came this weekend, when about 1,000 showed up on Miami Beach to participate in this year's second Hands Across the Sand, a protest against offshore oil drilling. In February, the same protest drew about 200 to join hands on South Beach.
The spill also has brought nonprofits together. Part of why the protest was more successful than in February was that other nonprofits, such as Oceanic Defense, 1Sky and the Environmental Coalition of Miami and the Beaches, helped promote it.