Pollution Heading for Asia

On the way to the ferry to the Gulf Islands this morning we passed this long moving Burlington Northern Santa Fe coal train headed for Deltasport’s Westshore Terminal, next to the ferry terminal, where most likely it will get loaded on a freighter bound for China to further pollute their air.    There were over a hundred cars, (supposedly 120?) all open as you can see in this boring photo.   This thermal coal most likely came from Montana or Wyoming in the US and ran right thru Seattle and Bellingham to Canada.  I’m not going to go into this HUGE controversial topic here which includes many health hazards (each car releases 1/2 lb. coal and coal dust per mile——550 lbs of cold dust released with the present 10 trains per day.   and diesel matter, and noise pollution, and time blocking the roads,  for starters…)  but the fight to prevent more terminals is going strong, thank goodness.     I heard on CNN that China is leading the world in solar power technology so are we to dare hope that they also recognize that this just can’t continue?

a previous blip about this port and topic with more references....


Happy to be here in the cabin—lucked out with calm almost sunny weather again but by the time we were unpacked, had a fire,  and ready for a walk around with camera, it was raining so a nap was had instead and you get the coal train instead of wildlife. :-)