Really good news! High speed rail for the US

This is the best news I've heard in along time. Finally the US is going to attempt to catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to sensible transportation.

For only $13 billion, that's what, about 5% of the amount we handed the gamblers who brought the economy to it's knees, around 10% of what our backward auto industries want to maintain our disastrous reliance on a 50 year old transportation plan that was obsolete 40 years ago, and maybe 1% of what we've wasted in the biggest corporate welfare package in recent years, the war in Iraq.

This is genuine investment in America's future, building something real that will facilitate our countries move towards a competitive, low carbon economy.

Read more at Worldchanging

Here is an excerpt from President Obama's speech on the matter;

"If we want to move from recovery to prosperity, then we have to do a little bit more. We also have to build a new foundation for our future growth. Today, our aging system of highways and byways, air routes and rail lines is hindering that growth. Our highways are clogged with traffic, costing us $80 billion a year in lost productivity and wasted fuel. Our airports are choked with increased loads. Some of you flew down here and you know what that was about. We're at the mercy of fluctuating gas prices all too often; we pump too many greenhouse gases into the air.

What we need, then, is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century. A system that reduces travel times and increases mobility. A system that reduces congestion and boosts productivity. A system that reduces destructive emissions and creates jobs.

What we're talking about is a vision for high-speed rail in America. Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city. No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. (Laughter.) Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination. Imagine what a great project that would be to rebuild America.

Now, all of you know this is not some fanciful, pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It is now. It is happening right now. It's been happening for decades. The problem is it's been happening elsewhere, not here.

In France, high-speed rail has pulled regions from isolation, ignited growth, remade quiet towns into thriving tourist destinations. In Spain, a high-speed line between Madrid and Seville is so successful that more people travel between those cities by rail than by car and airplane combined. China, where service began just two years ago, may have more miles of high-speed rail service than any other country just five years from now. And Japan, the nation that unveiled the first high-speed rail system, is already at work building the next: a line that will connect Tokyo with Osaka at speeds of over 300 miles per hour. So it's being done; it's just not being done here.

There's no reason why we can't do this. This is America. There's no reason why the future of travel should lie somewhere else beyond our borders. Building a new system of high-speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already overburdened aviation system –- and everybody stands to benefit."

Better to laugh than cry?

Corn ethanol and Water in the US Part 1 - by Robb

(Graphic from Robert Service 2004)

I'd like to discuss corn ethanol because it is a perfect example of a proposed solution that isn't as good as it seems. It also serves as a good model for examining personal resource use as it impacts so many areas of our lives; food, water, transportation. I'll attempt to cover this in 2 or 3 posts.

Transportation contributes 33% of total GHG in the US. At only 18% or less efficient well to wheel, light truck and automobile traffic contribute 60% of that total. If the ratios of US GHG emissions stay the same, in order to achieve the carbon reduction goals as set forward by the Contraction and Convergence limits of 450ppmv by 2050, personal transport contributions need to be reduced by 4/5’s.

The Bush Administration believes that corn based ethanol is part of the solution. A shift to ethanol is being subsidized to achieve a target of 36 billion gallons of production by 2022 as mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Approximately 1/3 of that is set to come from corn.

Water and climate change in the US
In a 2003 freshwater report the Government Accounting Office (GAO) found that of the 50 states,

“36 states anticipate water shortages in localities, regions, or statewide in the next 10 years..... When shortages occur, economic impacts to sectors such as agriculture can be in the billions of dollars.”

In the case of drought the number of states expecting shortages rises to 46. Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are embroiled in a legal struggle to control the Appalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin. South Carolina is suing North Carolina over diversion of water from the Catawba river basin. The city of Las Vegas has struck deals with most of the neighboring states for their water or storage capacity. These types of conflict and brokering are common all over the US.

Snow-melt accounts for 75% of all water in streams in the west. The Cascades of Washington, Oregon and Canada will likely see snow-pack reductions of 60% or higher by 2050.This would reduce stream flows in the summer by 20 to 50%, directly affecting over 9 million people 8 in cities from Vancouver to Portland west of the mountains not to mention the big cities east of the mountains. As cities rely on this water for domestic supply this places them in increasing competition with agriculture. (Robert Service 2004)


Most of the water coming off the mountains is stored in reservoirs. The 2003 GAO freshwater report states that,

“........the amount of water available for use from these reservoirs is continually being reduced by sedimentation.....the total reduction resulting from the buildup of sediment is estimated at about 1.5 million acre-feet per year.”

To the corn belt of the midwest, climate change will bring more rain in the winter, before planting, and late spring during planting. This rainfall will likely be more intense, risking the flooding of fields during planting time. Summers will see less rain and lower reservoirs. (Cromwell, Smith and Raucher 2007) As of 1997 only 15% of the total US corn crop was irrigated (Christenson 2002), but irrigation is becoming more common which has significant impacts on groundwater resources.

Groundwater constitutes more than 25% of the US water supply. Farmers used 2/3’s of the 28 trillion gallons of groundwater pumped in 1995.(Hoekstra and Chapagain 2007) Major aquifers are in serious decline. The Oglalla aquifer, one of the largest in the nation is a well known example,

“......... 6% of the aquifer has dropped to an unusable level that can no longer be pumped. If irrigation continues to draw water from the aquifer at the same rate, about 6% of the aquifer will be used up every 25 years.” (Worm 2004)

Groundwater is relied upon for domestic, industrial, and agricultural uses. When we’ve outstripped it’s ability to recharge we are in trouble.