"Coal Train Through the Forest" done on my iPad.
"Coal Car After Coal Car" done on my iPad.
When
I am on an airplane or do not have brush in hand, I create art on my iPad. The two pictures here were made using the
Brushes app. Since January 2014, I have been doing artwork related to the problems
caused by the burning, transportation and mining of coal.
Last year,
while in Sandpoint, Idaho, I witnessed one train pulling 126 (I actually counted!) open coal-filled cars through
this beautiful town on its way through Spokane to the West Coast ports. The ultimate destination for this coal is
China. Just picture this train chugging alongside miles of the pristine forests and
clear lakes of northwestern United States.
“It is important to
recognize that the only function of coal transport is to link coal mining to coal
combustion. The coal mines in the Powder River Basin (Montana and Wyoming)
continue to degrade local aquifers and water supplies. Coal combustion in China
presents a serious health risk to the hundreds of millions of people,
especially children, who live in affected air sheds. Coal combustion is also associated
with negative impacts that transcend geographic borders. Ocean acidification,
acid rain, mercury emissions, and climate change affect global populations,
regardless of where the coal is burned. The financial cost accrued from health
and environmental damages from coal mining, processing, transport and combustion
are currently estimated at a third to over half a trillion dollars annually in
the U.S. alone”. (Coal Train Facts
info@Coaltrainfacts.org).
Let us work collectively and creatively to develop alternative energy solutions.
