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July 26, 2014 Comments (0) journal

Momenta

This coming Monday evening, July 28th, the film Momenta will be shown at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma. Showtime is 7pm, the evening is sponsored by the South Sound chapter of Surfrider and the admission is a paltry $3.00.

The film focuses on raising awareness about the environmental issues and societal impacts surrounding coal exports, something that anyone who’s sat 10 minutes or more at a crossing, waiting for the ridiculously long trains to finally pass, knows a little about. With American demand in decline, the coal industry has turned its attention to rapidly expanding Asian markets. The industry’s plan is to extract 140 million tons of coal per year from the Powder River Basin and ship it overseas via deep-water ports in Washington and Oregon. Each day, over fifty trains up to a mile-and-a-half-long, laden with Powder River coal, are planned to travel from Wyoming and Montana through hundreds of rural towns to ports in the Pacific Northwest. “This isn’t the current or future economy that Pacific Northwest communities are excited about,” says Brice Boland, Surfrider Foundation Washington Field Coordinator. The near-constant stream of escaping coal dust imposes toxic environmental pollutants and a myriad of health risks on the communities through which the trains travel

Momenta focuses on the issue of coal exports as they relate to the Pacific Northwest, including its impacts on our local communities, the environment and America’s energy future. Produced by Protect Our Winters and Plus M Productions, and presented by SnoCru, Momenta is narrated by world renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker, and features activist and author Bill McKibben. Also on camera are professional snowboarders Jeremy Jones and Lucas Debari, and a host of community and environmental leaders from the throughout the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Plains.

Additional information will be posted on the chapter’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/SouthSoundSurfrider