Bellingham Comments from Digital Recorder - EISs for the Proposed ...

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. II
COURT REPORTER: BETH DRUMMOND PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
Page 86
1 this massive amount of coal would have on the rest of the
2 world, particularly over Asia, but beyond that to the global
3 warming and the climate change that affects of all of us.
4 I've been a part of a group of spiritual leaders,
5 people of faith, from various religions who have come
6 together increasingly and focusing on the fact that we need
7 all a sense of our own spiritual connectedness with people
8 throughout the world and with the rest of creation, to give
9 attention to effects that this will have on others.
10 I think this also becomes, very central, an issue
11 of complicity and what, in fact, will be the image that this
12 area would have.
13 Certainly, our image right now is one that we are
14 concerned about the environment and about the rest of
15 creation. But having moved internationally, I'm quite aware
16 of the fact that the rest of the world is also watching us
17 and saying, "How foolish, really, are they in terms of going
18 back to possible fuel dependency"?
19 I would hope that our image would not be one of
20 continuing to go regressively when, in fact, much of the
21 rest of the world, including Asia, are developing a lot of
22 ways of sustaining creation and moving beyond fossil fuel.
23 So rather than having coal-besmudged image, I
24 would hope that we would continue to maintain that tradition
25 here in Whatcom County.