Articles by JMG

Trains are the forgotten mode of transport, at least in the U.S.

"Because if your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down their throats."

Take electrified rail, for instance. Here's a sad report from Dean Baker of The American Prospect, one of the best reporters going today:

I was shocked to discover in a conversation with a congressional staffer that rebuilding the country's train system is a topic that is strictly verboten on Capitol Hill. I was reminded of this when I read that a French train had set a new speed record of 357 miles per hour. Trains are far more fuel efficient than planes. Even at much slower speeds than this new French train, service across the Northeast and between the Midwest and Northeast can be very time competitive with air travel, after factoring in travel times to and from airports and security searches. It is remarkable that politicians don't even have trains on their radar screens.

And, if you haven't seen the video of what an electrified train can do, check this out.

When people ask silly questions

"If fossil fuels are the problem, wouldn't running out of them be good?"

There's an old joke about economists and other Panglossians that bears on this question:

A man leaps off the top of a skyscraper and, as he passes by each floor, true to his optimistic tendencies, he says, "Well, so far, so good."

Running out of fossil fuels is like this man running out of floors. The critical thing is not to jump ... i.e., not to commit all that carbon to the atmosphere in the first place.

The ubiquitous Richard Heinberg talks with Acres USA

Interesting interview with Richard Heinberg about the effects of peak oil on U.S. agriculture, in Acres USA, "A voice for Eco Agriculture."

Corporatists overestimate environmental response costs every time

A friend sends an article from a legal publication that makes an important point about economists and other naysayers who insist that addressing global climate disruption will be too expensive. (Oddly, the same people always gassing on about boundless human potential when it comes to imagining new substitutes for depleting resources always forget to incorporate that creativity in their projections of the cost of fixing environmental problems.)

A key excerpt (my emphasis):