If time will do a search on Arnold the Govenator & Gore the tree hugger, he'll find a wealth of info, including their recent appearance at the United Nations (not sure time even knows what I'm talking about...sarcastic retort,
).
Hmm, I'm sure jtr could write few books, but like Gore's books would end up doing nothing to solve the problems as *they* want to see it. Problem is they will never get people to live the way they want them to, that includes me! While in a utopia universe, everything is right there in an ordered an efficient way, just like affordable health care in the USA, which will not happen in our lifetime.
Besides being an LED zealot, well also know jtr is a train fanatic! (not offense, but you are
). I will never take a train to China(but if it is cost effective, I'll risk a deadly accident riding a train once I get there by plane, to visit the vast distances between major cities or desired locations...say if I were to be there for the Olympics), nor a 30day *each* way freighter across the oceans, when it is far, far, far more practical to fly. I hate flying just as much as jtr (well, he won't go in one because...if man were meant to fly, he'd have wings---and if women were meant to spend 30days floating on the ocean, that is just as deep in deadly depth as the distance the planes fly above the oceans, without a care in the world to the time and ridiculous cost compared to flying...they'd be *mermaids*, lol), but high-speed trains, get serious. I don't want to hear about how the olds are lower that you die in a Maglev @300mph, than in a plane crash, @300mph, any crash is likely to be very deadly---and there will be crashes. Now if they can cause a nice ice age to start, get firm ice across from Siberia to Alaska, and I can get there for LESS than a $1,000 round trip air fair to Hong Kong, then I might be willing to go a ridiculously circuitous route to get to HK via train that takes 3 days instead of 16hrs from Los Angeles. Really, there is no practical solution for affordable transoceanic travel than by plane, end of agrument jtr, you can't win that one.
It would be great if people stopped driving, but in a free country, you can't stop it. Ride a train with a load of dim sum from 3 or 4 different restaurants I could only get to in a practical amount of 2hrs or so by driving---there are no dim sum restaurants on the westside of Los Angeles, my favorite that was good, which I frequented far more than the distant dim sum restaurants in the Chinese communites...closed 2 years ago
, while taking the rail system if it were expanded 10 fold in Los Angeles would net me a loss of time probably to double that, when I could be back home eating and enjoying that food before it's time to sleep, assuming I could even carry that much dim sum (8 styro containers or more) in my hands on a crowed train/subway...get real! NOT practical. Too many instances where trains are simply NOT practical, and never will be. They are great for reducing where most of the car traffic is generated, going to and from work 5-days a week, and yes telecommunting is preferable and can reduce some of this problem.
But as usual, jtr is only looking at his USA, not globally, not how history will go down. Facts are that, China will surpass the USA in global emissive pollution in a few decades, facts are that India (yet another large country without much of the pollution generating capacity of the USA but with a growing economic population with the same desires for the mid-class life going on now in China) will pass China in population and undoubtedly pollution by 2050. Developed nations will soon be passed by fast growing 3rd world populations. It's a global problem, billions of dollars spent on railways is but only capable of a drop in the bucket as far as solutions as much as jtr dreams about that utopian railway society of his...ain't going to happen. The scope of the problem is too great and complex to be solved, even mitigated substantially by jtr's limited suggestions...sounds harsh-not trying to pick on jtr-I respect his opinions, they are well meaning---but I completely disagree with his conclusions, but it's also not based on other people's unrealistic optimism that throwing billions of dollars here and there without comprehending the needs of all people, other people that do not share your point of view of how to live, results in failure...politicians are great at this. There are far too many billion dollar projects that run tens of hundreds of times over budget (Boston, what's it called traffic project...you on the Eastcoast?) Any and all traffic systems of the future seem doomed to excessive cost overruns, kind of surprising when something does get completed, and by then twice a many cars (because twice as many people are being born) are there already to make things *worse*.
The single biggest problem, once again, is population growth and planning for that. All the wonderful pie-in-the-sky planning is useless without a solid projection of costs invovled with more people constantly adding stresses to all social systems---Emergeny Room care as local So.Cal. hospitals is at the breaking point and none of the policians are addressing this, the people doen't react, just like 9/11 terrorist attacks, until the tragedy occurs. Who planned in China for the world's greatest population migration of over 300 million people leaving rural areas of China for better job opportunities in ever more conjested cities and factory/industrial communities of the East Coast of China...planning? Uh huh.
There will a moritorium on car usage in Bejing during next summers Olympics, and lost of factories will need to be shut down for weeks to avoid pollution...but will that be enough? During the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the scare of massive traffic jams on the freeways resulted in the lightest freeway traffic for a 2 week period ever. Would not happen like that in 2008, there are easily twice as many cars & people using ever more conjested freeways...that with much more rail lines that jtr thinks will solve the transportation grid lock. He is sorrly wrong, there are just too many people outstripping the transporation systems ability to cope. Another doubling of population here in LA in just the next 2 decades. Trillions of dollars of rail systems would only reduce the INCREASES in congestion, not lower it in any way. The only address part of the problems, a small part of the problems, not the huge part jtr unrealistically believes that they do from his insular upbringing in NYC...it's a distorted view point, not encompassing/comprehending the *realities* of the rest of the world. Sorry, but the Bush Admn is going out, and their position on the Kyoto accord was correct for what they were saying. Only problem is that one or two term politicians don't ever put into place longer term goals, government mandates (Congress controls this for those who don't understand how it works in this country) that could be effective. I heard lots of talk about alternatives from the Bush Admn, that either will never work, or never get the support necessary to become reality. It is fine to criticise the Kyoto accords as being unwise in false attempts to work a problem unsuccessfully, but it's another to do something else outside of the Kyoto accords, if you don't believe they would work. They alternative plans haven't been put into place or promoted enough to make any alternative do anything better. Both are losers so far. Plan C anyone?
Uh oh, I think Merc's head is going to explode, don't read this Merc, bad for your health
