Infrastructure must adapt to protect economic growth from the threat of climate change

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2011/05/09/infrastructure-climate-change/

The past as prologue: US passenger rail service in the last half-century

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Amtrak's start of operations, the editors at Greater Greater Washington have compiled a slideshow visually documenting the evolution of passenger rail service since the early 1960s. Here are a few snapshots of recent history in US passenger rail transport.

For some perspective on precipitous decline in the US passenger rail sector during the 1960s, compare the two maps above, less than a decade apart. Such loss was particularly steep in the Northern Plains, where passenger service on the relatively heavily-travelled mainlines of the early 1960s and prior was in many cases reduced to no more than one train with two lightly loaded carriages daily by the late 1960s.

Note how the network became 'rationalized' by comparing the above map with the 1970 one, illustrating the government takeover of passenger rail service between passage of the Rail Passenger Service Act and the first run of an Amtrak train, which was the Clockers service between Philadelphia and New York (now branded along with its connecting routes as Northeast Regional, a slower but cheaper alternative to Acela Express). Sixty percent of cities with passenger rail service lost it when private rail companies save for a few such as Southern and Denver, Rio Grande and Western (though both ultimately turned their passenger operations to Amtrak within a decade of its creation) relieved themselves of the passenger carrier business.

Other than frequency increases and scheduling improvements since 2000, as well as the replacement of Metroliner with Acela along the Northeast Corridor, the present state of Amtrak rail service is not much different from its 1971 state. Given the sparse network, a low modal share for passenger rail is quite understandable, with the implication that increasing frequency and coverage of service appears a reasonable remedy.

A 'ConnDOT Super 7-like' case in the making, or merely ignorance of lessons from the economic crisis?

According to a news release in Next American City this weekend, the Sierra Club recently charged that the sponsors of a third orbital motorway for Houston, the Grand Parkway, "purposely constrained “the purpose and need” section of the plan to preclude the no-build option" and that "the environmental assessment ignored the impact of induced growth" (Schmitt). Schmitt also notes that the proponents of project, while acknowledging that the new motorway is not necessary, make a 'build-it-and-they-will-come' argument in its favour, quite unabashedly making the case that sprawl is inevitable in a few decades due to people moving to Texas to buy larger houses and hence enjoy a higher quality of life. We can only hope that they assume the federal government will succeed in its attempts to resuscitate the housing market and return the economy to the debt, consumption, and sprawl-based growth trajectory of the past three decades, a scenario that the triple convergence of rising energy costs, demographic change, and unsustainable debts and deficits would render highly unlikely.

The airship as a low-carbon replacement for freighter jets

The Daily Climate provides an overview of recent interest in airships for transporting goods, citing Lockheed Martin's prototype as a candidate for commercialization in the near future.

Something may happen in Chinese policy making process

the Chinese government sacked its railway minister Liu Zhijun and announced he is under investigation.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-12/china/28542642_1_railway-minister-announcements-liu-zhijun

Feb 12, 2011

After this news,
China slow HSR

http://www.dailytech.com/China+Slows+High+Speed+Trains+Amid+Reports+of+Shoddy+Construction/article21489.htm

April 28, 2011

This link is also interesting
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/05/china-high-speed-rail-impact-on-china.html

Ai Weiwei sculpture outside the Plaza Hotel in NYC

Fred talked about Chinese artist Ai Weiwei sculpture outside the Plaza Hotel in NYC. For those interested in the issue, here is a NY Times article about it: "12 Heads Do the Talking for a Silenced Artist"

"...

“Zodiac Heads” is a Conceptual work bodied forth as bronze sculpture that my colleague Holland Cotter rightly predicted would look “winsome” if you didn’t know the back story, but that becomes more subversive if you do. The heads are enlarged versions of those that were designed in the 18th century by European Jesuits for the Manchu emperor Qianlong as part of a famous fountain clock in the European-style gardens of the Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, near Beijing. (Each of the originals spouted water for two hours a day, which may explain why the mouths of Mr. Ai’s copies are open, as if they are noisily expressing themselves.)

The heads were looted when this vast complex of buildings and gardens was ransacked and burned by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860, an event that remains a signal symbol of national humiliation. They began to resurface in 2000, and at this point the Chinese government has retrieved five of them (ox, tiger, horse, monkey and boar).

..."

Greening the Chinese City at the Asia Society in NYC

Fred mentioned going to New York for a conference at the Asia Society. The complete video of Greening the Chinese City is online.

Introducing Sec. Mullan

YouTube has a series of videos featuring our 'boss' in Paper 4. They are definitely not the least bit silly and assuredly deserve your time and attention as you research for the assignment.

A taste:

Nissan wins bid for New York’s iconic yellow cabs

Nissan will be able to convert the NV200, which will get 25 miles per gallon, to run on electric-only engines beginning in 2017

http://www.heritagecorporateservices.com/2011/05/nissan-wins-bid-for-new-york-s-iconic-yellow-cabs-reuters

Transit Killed by Auto Manufacturers in Grand Rapids, MI

Fred Quinllin tries to bring great public transit back to Grand Rapids, MI after auto manufacturers bought out and dismantled the system many years ago.



From Boing Boing

California Gambles on Carbon Trade

By RORY CARROLL | REUTERS

Published: May 1, 2011

California is putting its reputation as a pioneering environmental heavyweight on the line as it prepares to establish a carbon market in eight months.

State regulators are battling the clock, the courts and their own empty pockets as they prepare to oversee the start of the multibillion-dollar market Jan. 1.

The idea of capping greenhouse gas emissions and providing cleaner companies with the potential for profit from their success is not new, but it has never been tried in the United States on this scale.

“This is by far the most ambitious program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in North America, and by some measures the world,” said Franz Litz, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute.

California regulators are convinced that they have the data and intelligence necessary to improve upon the system running in the European Union, which has shown results but has also experienced theft and fraud.

Read More