Bud Bottoms, an artist and activist, was the Get Oil Out founder named among the Santa Barbara activists who helped promote Earth Day.
Bottoms became a prominent opponent of offshore drilling after the January 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Along with fellow activist Marvin Stuart, he helped popularize the phrase “Get Oil Out,” shortened to GOO!, during protests against oil operations. The organization formed within a day of the disaster and turned local outrage into an organized anti-pollution campaign.
The Santa Barbara movement connected local activism with the emerging national environmental movement. Activists including Bottoms, Selma Rubin, and Marc McGinnes publicized the spill’s effects and advocated stronger environmental protections. Their work helped make Santa Barbara an important part of Earth Day’s origin story.
A common mix-up is choosing Denis Hayes or Gaylord Nelson. Hayes organized the first Earth Day nationally, while Nelson proposed the event; neither founded Get Oil Out. Bottoms’ role was local: he helped build the grassroots organization that brought the spill’s consequences into public and political view.