The Trees Are Listening, Are You?
Several times a day, where we live in Bellingham Washington, we are greeted with long trains filled with coal heading to Westshore Terminal in British Columbia for shipment to China. The train tracks are about 150 feet from our door.
As transplants two years ago from Wyoming to Washington, coal continues to haunt. When in Wyoming, as an active public art artist, I witnessed, thinly veiled displeasure by politicians and energy executives causing a work of art to be removed with threats of funding being withheld. That was 2012 and the political pressure seemed unbelieveable; by 2026 standards, a mere standard threat.
I share my history with coal.
2011 British artist, Chris Drury, commissioned by the University of Wyoming to create a land art piece Carbon Sink, on the campus of the University of Wyoming. Due to the concept and materials used to create the artwork, powerful members of the coal and oil industries bristled and felt unfairly criticized. Oil and gas fund the University of Wyoming generously. Powerful entities orchestrated the removal of the public art work with threats of withholding university funds if the artwork remained.
The artwork was removed far earlier than the original contract due to political pressure. Carbon Sink remains a beacon and bellweather of ongoing environmental erosion by the politically powerful. Sadly by 2026 standards this erosion seems inconsequential.
2012 At the time, I blogged about the project
BloggingCarbonSink
2017 This year Jeffrey Lockwood published a book outlining the political implications of this act and others like it.
Jones, Brianna (forward) and Jeffrey A. Lockwood. Behind the Carbon Curtain: The Energy Industry, Political Censorship, and Free Speech. University of New Mexico Press, 2017. ProjectMuse
“Lockwood and other scholars at the University of Wyoming have recently become locked in a debate with university administration, and Wyoming business and energy leaders over what he and others have argued is a clear case of the infringement of academic freedom. According to emails and reports released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the sitting university President, Tom Buchanan, ordered the destruction of Carbon Sink, an artwork created by Chris Drury (artist), after Wyoming energy and business leaders considered it an untoward criticism of the industry that partly subsidizes the university through severance tax. Although Wyoming industry leaders have called for a moratorium on the debate, the university administration's infringement of academic freedom has become the hot-button topic while the university seeks a replacement for Buchanan, upon his scheduled retirement in July 2013.” MeetJeffreyLockwood
“Exploring censorship imposed by corporate wealth and power, this book focuses on the energy industry in Wyoming, where coal, oil, and gas are pillars of the economy. The author examines how governmental bodies and public institutions have suppressed the expression of ideas that conflict with the financial interests of those who profit from fossil fuels. He reveals the ways in which university administrations, art museums, education boards, and research institutes have been coerced into destroying artwork, abandoning studies, modifying curricula, and firing employees. His book is an eloquent story of the conflict between private wealth and free speech.” Project MUSE
2019 Carbon Sink Lives In 2019, University of Wyoming students composed a momentary recreation of the sculptural piece with their own bodies as an event -- “a rally for truth and action on climate change.”
2022 While working on a public art project in Wyoming to inspire local citizens to sign up for green electric energy, I crisscrossed the county. Working with high school students and the community at large, Chris Drury’s experience in Wyoming resurfaced and the power of public art. I contacted Drury about a possible guest appearance at the Community School where I was invited to give an expanded presentation on the project as an illustration of the power of art.
MyInterviewWithChris2022
2024 We move to Bellingham Washington and experience the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad running parallel to our home about 150 feet from our door. With sometimes several trains per day, dozens of open cars filled with coal head to Westshore Terminal (1) with fierce determination. The shipments head to China from Westshore as both Oregon and Washington have refused to build terminals for tranport (2).
Background on Entries
(1) Westshore Terminal
Premier Mover of Coal (from their website)
Safe, responsible and highly efficient, Westshore is Canada’s busiest coal export terminal, handling more than 33 million tonnes of coal annually and providing billions in dollars of export revenue for Canada and British Columbia.
Operating since 1970 in Port Metro Vancouver, Westshore is the terminal of choice for Canadian coal mines and for United States mines in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming.
The Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership is owned by the Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation.
Westshore Terminal, British Columbia
Port where US coal is shipped to China via British Columbia due to the states of Oregon and Washington refusing to approve terminals. Canada, at this time accepts coal from Montana and Wyoming without taxing these shipments.
• Owner: Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership
• Location: British Columbia, 32 kilometres south of downtown Vancouver, Canada
• Existing Capacity (Million tonnes per annum): 36
• Status: Operating
• Start year: 1970
• Type: Exports
• Source of Coal: Coal mines in British Columbia; and Montana and Wyoming USA
• Cost of expansion: $270 million (2019)
WestshoreWebsite
(2) Indigenous nations on both sides of border unite to oppose expansion of Delta port
IndigenousNationsOpposeExpansion
U.S. states rely on B.C. to export thermal coal. Should the shipments be taxed?
Credits
135 Cars, video recorded and edited by Glenn Messersmith, Holly & H Street, Bellingham, WA 2026. 3:34
World O World, words and music by Jacob Collier, performed by The Aeolians of Oakwood University, Ocean Way Studios, Nashville, Tennessee 2018. 6:15
World O World
words and music by Jacob Collier
written for and performed by The Aeolians of Oakwood University, Huntsville, Alabama
World o world, you've been my home
Home, home, home, home
Now it's time for me to go
Give me the wings to fly, to fly home
Sun did rise and sun did fall
You've been with me through it all
Always keeping by my side
Always by my side
Love o love
You've been a friend
Love o love, oh
Now the road must reach an end
Come, it's time to go, it's time, oh
Time is swift to come to pass
Nothing stays and nothing lasts
Always moving on, moving on, and on
Always moving on
Oh, and when I call your name
I think I love again
I lay my world upon your hands again
Oh, and when I call your name
I feel my fire again, oh
You are my soul
Oh, take me home
Until we meet
Until we meet again
Until we meet again
Until we meet again
Goodbye
Until we meet again
Until we meet again
Meet again
Goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye...