Upon returning to the United States, Sanders took up the role of assistant professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was very active in the battle to stop offshore oil drilling, was on the board of directors of GET OIL OUT! (GOO!) and a founding director of Western Citizens for Environmental Defense, which conducted environmental legal actions. He was a member of the International Council of Environmental Law, Bonn, Germany. He was also deeply involved in the campaign to pass Proposition 20, the California Coastal Initiative. Sanders sailed across the Pacific to Tasmania in 1974. On the voyage, he and his crew became witnesses in the Palmyra murders described by Vincent Bugliosi in his book "And the Sea Will Tell."