The oil industry’s latest disaster has arrived on the shores of Santa Barbara, California, where an underground pipeline ruptured and spilled an estimated 21,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. We don’t know the full extent of the damage yet — in the worst-case scenario, we could be looking at something more like 105,000 gallons spilled — but officials say the oil, which has separated into two large patches, has coated at least nine miles of coastline; Wednesday evening, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the county.

Decades after a major spill opened our eyes to oil’s dangers, we’re still living under the delusion that it’s safe