The Vancouver Sun reports in its Friday edition environmentalists, focused on an epic battle against pipelines, have been mostly silent in the face of a growing number of oil shipments traversing British Columbia by rail these days. A Sun editorial says this opposition to new pipelines for the province ignores the practical reality that oil not moved by pipeline will be put on trains, and to a far lesser extent, trucks, to get the product to market. B.C. experienced 110 derailment incidents in 2013. Not all of those mishaps involved cars carrying petroleum but, with oil shipments increasing year to year, the possibility of serious accidents cannot be discounted. A year ago, Canada's Transportation Safety Board warned, "The amount of crude oil now being shipped by rail in North America is staggering." Meanwhile, Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline is facing 19 lawsuits, many from aboriginals. Environmentalists would be smart to concentrate their efforts on convincing consumers to become more energy efficient rather than working to nix a means of oil transport that is safer than the alternative being deployed by default. [The Sun has still not said whether it is in favour of Northern Gateway or against it.]