RAILforum: Another reason rail can't die

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Posted by panamaclipper (Member # 3058) on :

From an announcement today on the news wires:

CHICAGO, March 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Recently, a secret Pentagon report was leaked, warning of grave scenarios in the very near future due to climate change. The report points to the serious threat to our National Security in the event steps are not taken immediately to avert this potential disaster.

According to Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare (AReCO) and The American Working Group for National Policy (AWGNP) the report shows that climate change starting as soon as the next 20 years could be a global calamity, killing millions in wars and natural disasters.

"Now, more than ever, there is support and urgency to demand a U.S. moratorium on all airport expansion projects currently in the works, until the details of the Pentagon report have been fully vetted," said Jack Saporito of AReCO. "Furthermore, there is a real need for environmental impact reviews to be taken seriously and results stringently enforced. Over the years, the review process has been increasingly overlooked as redundant and unnecessary. Now is the time to instead reinforce proper procedures and to move towards transportation that substantially reduces climate change forcing functions."

Jet aircraft atmospheric damage is unique in that exhaust emissions from such aircraft are deposited not only in the lower atmosphere but also in the cloud-forming troposphere and higher, where resulting contrails are formed and other chemicals remain to interact for decades.

The now well-recognized critical role (including by the United Nations) that air transportation plays in climate change is raised to the highest levels of concern by the Pentagon report. "Rather than decades or even centuries of gradual warming, recent evidence suggests the possibility that a more dire climate scenario may actually be unfolding," according to the report.

This climate scenario is driven by the heightened probability that the huge, Atlantic gulf stream flow of warm water (part of the thermohaline ocean circulation system) could cease within a relatively short time frame, with disastrous effects. The impact of this thermohaline collapse will shock many people who have been conditioned to believe that "global warming" means that it will be warmer in the United States, making winters more pleasant for many areas. In fact, it will get much colder, stormier, and drier.

Substantial advances toward this nightmare scenario will be experienced not in centuries, but in just years, or a few decades -- years in which the world's air transportation industry, in consort with the U.S. and other governments, plans massive expansions of flight operations and corresponding pollutant emission deposits in the atmosphere (current projections of tripling within 15-20 years).

Posted by M190 (Member # 3009) on :

Interesting stuff. But look at this version. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,112613,00.html

Posted by panamaclipper (Member # 3058) on :

Yes, I don't consider the Pentagon a reliable source about this. But the stuff about high flying jet engines mucking up the environment is worth a nod. That's been considered a problem for more than a decade. At some point someone will say something has to be done, and we'll need a rail system to handle increased transportation needs.

Posted by panamaclipper (Member # 3058) on :

I would love to see a cost analysis of "tripling" the domestic air transport system in this country in the next couple of decades compared with cost of updating and increasing rail transportation.

Posted by RRRICH (Member # 1418) on :

Panama - sounds like a sci-fi best-selling thriller! Be assured that global warming will NOT "suddenly" take place in "less than a century." I do not want to give you a lecture on geology and climatology here, but the earth has gone through long-term warming-cooling trends for millions of years, and that pace will likely continue, and not "suddenly" change, no matter how many jets are flying around the world. People tend to panic when we have short-term climate fluctuations ("this year is warmer than last year, therefore we must be experiencing global warming," or "in January last year, we had 15 inches of snow on the ground, and we only have 10 now, so it must be global warming"). But it is a novel approach to the argument that we need more passenger trains and fewer airplanes!

Posted by rresor (Member # 128) on :

Perhaps more to the point, if it's going to happen in the next 20 years, it's *already* too late to do anything about it.

Posted by panamaclipper (Member # 3058) on :

Yes, I know things are never as bad as some folks say they are. But things are also never as good as some folks say they are, either.