Magic Green Bullet
Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine editor
It’s time to put up or shut up. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last month requiring an 83 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and a report released this week says we can do it. Now we just need to do it.
Here’s the problem. Global warming is real. It’s happening and carbon dioxide emissions are largely to blame. And for the United States this comes down to transportation, which account for about 28 percent of the emissions.
Transportation emissions could be reduced by 47 percent by 2050 by changing land-use patterns, adding road pricing techniques and changing travel behavior. Despite claims to the contrary, that last one is the proverbial magic green bullet. And it’s one transit has been trying to load in the gun for years.
Getting people out of their cars and onto public transit will happen for a large part of this nation when someone pulls their keys out of their cold dead hands. It’s not a matter of what’s best for the environment or what is the cheapest or easiest way to travel. It’s a matter of freedom. That ingrained idea we as Americans have in our head that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Owning a car hits the liberty nerve for a lot of people and the pursuit of happiness one for many others. Just the notion of having to depend on someone else — even if it is a local governmental entity — for transportation is anathema for many people. It simply doesn’t compute. It has nothing to do with operating on a schedule or ease of use. It’s just wrong.
This is the problem we as a nation need to overcome. We have to overcome this entitlement feeling when it comes to personal transportation. We need to prove that people can still pursue life, liberty and happiness without owning a vehicle — and here is the secret, they can pursue it anywhere.
That is the key. Public transit needs to be of all the people, for all the people, (near)by all the people. And for that to happen the government needs to make sweeping changes in the way we perceive transit, not just how we pay for it.
The current administration has jumped to a good start by offering unprecedented amounts of monetary investment in transit, especially for rail. But it’s put up or shut up time. You want carbon emission reductions? You want to get people out of their cars? You want the public to embrace a high-speed rail vision? Then you need to build it. You need to get the rail lines up … now. You need to make them fast. And you need to make them work.
The government and public transit has to move like it’s never done before. It needs to be a sweeping change that catches the public interest like wildfire. That is the only way that magic green bullet is going to be used. Because the public is fickle. And if transit doesn’t get moving now, it will be another case of boondoggles and ‘I told you so’ from transit opponents.
Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,
Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
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July 31st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The problem is multi-fold. Global warming via carbon dioxide is scientifically flawed. We have on-record global periods of warming and cool-down (which we’re currerntly IN a cool-down period) irregardless of industrialization. (coldest Summer in many decades)
Secondly, the US shouldn’t have to destroy it’s entire way of life and economy to meet these goals when China, Russia, and India REFUSE to comply. Their people are moving away from bicycles and mass transit for the FREEDOM of a personal automobile. What fuel we save China and India will buy.
Do we have the will-power and authority to hurt the economies of these three countries by banning their goods until they get in line?. NO, what you’d have then is a GENUINE WWW 3 break out. Next to religious, ALL wars have basically been fought over trade.
Thirdly, America is NOT Europe geographically, and for the time being philosophically OPPOSED to any RE=Europanation(sp) of these United States of America. Europe and all it’s ideology stands for NOTHING in the world, especially when it comes to self-defense. OR have you forgotten the thousands of white markers for the American dead who saved their collective BUTTS TWICE in the last century. Mass transit by-the-way, was targeted by the invaders to paralyze these weak countries. It is still a target of terroists and thugs.
Fourthly, the railroads and mass transit HELD a monopoly over the America public and economy in the first half of the 19th Century. When the GI’s came back from WW II, they craved to get away from having their lives controlled by someone else’s time table when it came to transportation. If the America Public WANTED Mass Transit, Amtrak would’nt still be subsidized 37 years after the Feds took them over.
We already had the Robber Barons of Old FORCE their will upon the people of this country when it came to transportation and commerce. The only way the American people will ever use mass transit is if they are FORCED by an oppressive government to do so,
What American’s need to do is DEMAND the use of already available and CHEAP-er clean fuels like Natural and Methane gas for personal transportation. Subsidies for Amtrak along with taxes should be drastically cut, and the whole idea of “The Nanny State” should be crushed.
AND while we’re at it, quit listening to and especially subsidizing crack-pot theorists like Al Gore and those misanthrope’s on our college campuses who thrive on bad science.
If the planet’s getting hotter anywhere, it isn’t because of man. BTW, the asthma rate in Russia and China is DECLINING?. How is that?. In the most polluted places on Earth?. Maybe because the people actually do PHYSICAL Labor instead of sitting around with their kid’s on the sofa watching the socialist dribble on tv.
August 1st, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Transit is run by the same sort of bureaucrats that run all big corporations, Fred. Even most big railroad execs are more bureaucrat than entrepreneur… Fear Peaking Oil, not Climate change.
USDOE and International Energy Agency have come to the point with clarity: we are at production limits for liquid motor fuel. Recovery will hit a ceiling on growth when we approach consumption of summer 2008. Distribution of victuals will suddenly rest on railway capacity and reach moreso than anytime since the freeway age began over 50 years ago. Right, Mr. Boone Pickens?
Even Transit officials riding the EOE wave into their present positions of responsibility should be able to find time for figuring out what “Ceiling On Liquid Motor Fuel” means to them and their responsibilities. They have been silent partners in this emergency coming our way: “The Long Emergency”, as James Howard Kunstler calls it…
Gas Rationing will be real, boys & girls, Climate Change decades ahead is a ho hum, compared to near term trucking breakdown and restricted gasoline purchases. Let’s think about who really knows about this: Our former V.P. Richard Cheney, who became well aware of Peaking Oil circa 911DAY, when he held the (proceedings still secret) famous “Cheney Energy Policy Meetings”. Is anyone in US transportation circles the least bit curious about seeing the unabridged minutes of Cheney’s meetings? How about you, Mr. Jandt? Can you ask the V.P. about Peaking Oil? Any of the several still living would actually know about Peaking oil!
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:56 am
Fred:
Americans will continue to pursue Life, Liberty and the bumper in front of them. We cannot legislate away automobiles, nor can we force land use change. Rising gas prices may provide more economic incentives for transit use and TODs than any other stick. All we have to do is sit back and wait.
Now, I agree with The Rage that Global Warming comes and goes and has periodically changed over the millenia, even before industrialization. Human contribution, at this point, appears speculative at best. I also agree with The Rage that alternate fuels are an appropriate sollution. Rural areas, thinly settled agricultural populations will never be remotely economic for transit. However, lots of crop waste could be used to generate methane in thee areas, reducing reliance on oil (and saving farmers money).
But The Rage’s suggestion that we try natural gas is unworkable, due to the enormous capital investments required. But there is an availble fuel sold at almost every hardware store in America: Propane (with a little Butane mixed in). This fuel comes in returnable tanks and is easily plugged into a connector. In fact, this fuel is used extensively in Australia to power vehicles. It is more efficient than Gasoline and burns very clean.
I strongly disagree with The Rage that Amtrak is “mass transportation.” Transit is specifically NOT in their charter. In 1971, Amtrak was created to remove the burden of long distance passenger trains from the backs of railroads, who at that time were facing bankruptcy. Most long-distance passenger trains were losing $1 million or more PER TRAIN.
There was never any hope it could break even, much less make a profit. Amtrak was retained because the constiuents in the districts it served would have replaced their Senator or Congressman if it had been killed. That was true in the Reagon years when he tried to zero budget Amtrak and met with stiff bi-partisan opposition. It’s still true today.
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 am
Fred said: “Global warming is real.”
“It’s happening and carbon dioxide emissions are largely to blame.” Do you know what percentage of the atmosphere consists of Carbon Dioxide? It’s between 0.0314% AND 0.033% varying with altitude, temperature and location. This is not a large percentage. If the atmosphere was a football field, the last 3.3 feet would be Carbon Dioxide.
And Methane? There are so many zeros to the right of the decimal point in the percentage that it is time consuming to count them.
“And for the United States this comes down to transportation, which account for about 28 percent of the emissions.” Really big number here… 28% of .033%.
Let’s try the old eminent scientist quote: Dr. William Feldman of Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M. was the lead scientist for Odyssey an early Martian satellite explorer. He said,” “Odyssey is giving us indications of recent global climate change in Mars.” Lots of human activity up there… Here’s the link to NASA:
: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey
There are unpopular scientists who suggest that the warming trend is affecting other planets, so the man-made hogwash is a full-employment scare tactic to keep “scientists” in cushy jobs playing with their models of the future. A crystal ball might help.
So keep the faith. Believe in Global Warming. Complain that the Antarctic ice-shelf is shrinking, when in fact it is growing. Worry about rising sea levels when melting floating ice lowers those levels.
This is not to say that reducing pollution is a bad idea. Any animal except the very young knows not to poop in its own nest. The scare tactics are to convince you of the urgency and keep the doomsayers employed.
I will now duck and cover.
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