Description
In the mining town of Tocopilla, Chile's dizzying transition away from coal-fueled energy has left dozens of workers idle and unsure of their future. "Here it's as if those who work for the company are going to be favored, and the rest of us have to make do the best we can," says Pedro Castillo, 62, who still goes to work every day as a crane operator at the port, awaiting news on his future after the town's coal industry began to shut down. Four of the nine coal-fired power plant units that Chile has shuttered since 2019 were situated in Tocopilla, an industrial town wedged between the deep blue Pacific Ocean and arid mountains of the Atacama desert. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES