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

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. I
COURT REPORTER: GWEN BRASS PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
Page 38
Unless carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants
is severely limited, there will be no Arctic ice and there will
be no polar bears. Starting in 2015, if not sooner, global
greenhouse gas emissions must go down to zero.
Gateway Pacific will at full build-out ship 48 million
tons of coal annually. It's my understanding that the Army
Corps of Engineers will study only local impacts and thus not
anything happening way up in the Arctic that actually will be
caused by Whatcom County shipping coal to be burned way out
there in China. So I would suggest a local impact to you.
When 20 years from now we are celebrating our 48th
annual Birch Bay Polar Bear Plunge and your grandkids ask you,
"What is a Polar Bear," you can show them a video of one
because by that time they will never again be able to see one
alive.
Thank you.
MS. HULL: Next speaker, please.
THE SPEAKER: Hi, I'm Mary Janell Metger. I'm a
resident of Bellingham and I've lived here since 1995. As a
mother, educator, and community member of Bellingham, Whatcom
County, Washington State, United States, and the world, I'm
really concerned about the health, economic, and ecological
effects of this proposal.
You know, my husband and I are both educators and when
we were looking for where we wanted to commit ourselves as