Relaxing rodents

Chalk art experience planned during film festival

SANTA BARBARA —

The Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara, Sunrise-Santa Barbara, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board and 350 Santa Barbara are planning a Chalk Art Action with Elders and Youth.

This will be in support of the Green New Deal at the Fiesta 5 Theater, 916 State S., and Metro 4 Theater, 618 State St., from noon until 3 p.m. today and Sunday

Vandenberg conducts test of Minuteman III

during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Elders are joining with the youth to create chalk art on State Street to entertain and inform people who will be standing in line for SBIFF-featured films. The SBIFF is all about storytelling, and the Society of Fearless Grandmothers wants to encourage people to think about climate crisis storytelling.

The society noted that much recent storytelling has focused on the dreadful impacts of climate change (fires, floods, extinctions), but added the world needs new storytelling to help people envision a better future — a postfossil fuel era where policies protect people and the planet. Students will be writing messages about their vision of a green future, calling for passage of the Green New Deal, a plan for addressing climate change by ending the use of fossil fuels while providing good-paying jobs in clean energy.

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was launched at 11:01 p.m. Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The purpose of the ICBM test launch program is to validate and verify the safety, security, effectiveness and readiness of the weapon system, according to Air Force Global Strike Command.

The public is invited to share their visions of a green future with chalk art messages in State Street this weekend. Look for the grandmothers with baskets of chalk at Metro 4 and Fiesta 5.

— Katherine Zehnder

Col. Bryan Titus, Space Launch Delta 30 vice commander, was the launch decision authority.

“The Airmen and Guardians who perform this vital mission are some of the most skillfully trained and dedicated personnel in America’s Air and Space Force,” Col. Titus said in a news release. “These test launches demonstrate the readiness of U.S. nuclear forces and provide confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.”

— Katherine Zehnder