Comments feonixrift has made
Morass
And yet with some of the more important bus lines using the freeways, it can't even be that simple... I wish there were an easy way. Largely, this region needs to break out of the hub model of running everything through downtown, and focus on building a network that will be useful long-term rather than on just trying to stay in the black for now. But even just running one new rail line directly along where an old rail once ran is frought with tedious arguments. May we have time to get this done, because it sure isn't going fast.On A perspective from Eric Mann posted 2 years, 4 months ago 29 Responses
View from the ground
It is unfair to say the trains serve the rich here. They go through many poorer areas, and many people who ride them are not rich. Do not tell me a train through Compton is rich. Out by the foothills, we have been waiting a long time for the Gold Line train. I ride a bus that follows near the route it will take when complete... That bus is packed, often standing room only, sometimes too full to take on pasengers. It's not rich people on that bus, it's working class people. The same people this article talks about! The train would serve them, and better than this bus, once built. Yet we are still waiting... Because the East Side extension is being built first. It is not in a rich area either.
All our bus agencies here are struggling. We need more money, and less of it to be tied to how much the fare box pulls in. But the bottom line is we need more. They're attempting an incredible task, with far too few resources. Because I live in an area where you can't get by just using one agency's buses, I pay even more for my pass - $70 now. It is too expensive, yes, but what can they do? The money has to come from somewhere, the government provides a lot but not enough, and what they provide depends on how much the fares pull in.On A perspective from Eric Mann posted 2 years, 4 months ago 29 Responses
Nature of politics
They say what will keep public opinion up, and eventually have to act on it at least a little regardless of their other interests if they want to get re-elected. The Governator knows he has to come across as environmentalist, knows what an outcry there would be if he didn't, and that means one very crucial thing: People care. People actually care. Entire cities trying to ban plastic bags... We're getting somewhere, this battle is getting into the minds of enough people that even the government can't avoid it any longer.On How progressive can legislation be if it's never allowed to make progress? posted 2 years, 4 months ago 7 Responses
Explosive habits
Please, no more fireworks anyway. How much greenhouse gas do those spew? How many health problems does the choking smoke from them cause as it lingers over cities for days? I'm not focusing on the fingers that get burned or the eyes destroyed by shrapnel, those at least the people chose to be that near it in most cases, and I don't mind conscious informed choice of risk. But not being able to safely breath outside on the 5th is hideous.On Global warming cancels 4th of July celebrations posted 2 years, 4 months ago 28 Responses
Gas balance
Does the calculation of whether trees are good as carbon sinks include their oxygen production? Every time gasoline is burned, oxygen is consumed to make that carbon dioxide... Maybe we should be planting trees as oxygen offsets.On A good reason we shouldn't love trees, at least not in this case posted 2 years, 5 months ago 40 Responses
Different priorities
Lifecycle winner for the environment isn't the only considration... How many places can people easily get bamboo, but not afford that much fancily shaped metal.On Tubular, dude! posted 2 years, 5 months ago 13 Responses
Made me cry
It's wonderful that they're working so hard, and started so early. Maybe this shining example will help people believe it's possible.
I hope that wooden highrise has good fire protection though.On An entire nation of sexy beasts posted 2 years, 5 months ago 15 Responses
Missed one...
It's a pity that graph doesn't include solar thermal, I would have been quite curious about its efficiency.On Always keep the bait dangling just out of reach posted 2 years, 5 months ago 17 Responses
Dust...
Arrakis.On Did someone call for a smog machine? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 3 Responses
Window on a changing world
I'm saddened that there aren't more homes trying to become at least somewhat heat efficient... It's not that expensive to get double pane windows, or put in a lighter color roof the next time that it has to be redone anyway. Without efficiency of that kind, every time it gets hotter the electricity use will shoot up as well, as people try to keep impossibly heat-leaky homes cool.On Well, sorta posted 2 years, 5 months ago 24 Responses
Link typo
Looks fascinating. Needs to be an absolute link not relative though, as the page is outside Grist.On A reality TV show that will knock your socks off posted 2 years, 6 months ago 7 Responses
Playing the market
Ok, so the fuel isn't great. In fact it's kinda yucky. But if coal has to compete directly with gas, will that raise coal prices, and what would that do to incentives for/against coal fired power plants? I'm hoping the biofuel game will move soy out of the 'cheap food filler' category, maybe this could move coal out of the 'cheap power plant filler' category.On That's what his support for CTL shows posted 2 years, 6 months ago 74 Responses
River waters
As I recall, France had to decrease output of some of its plants during the hottest part of the summer because the rivers they used for cooling didn't have enough water to do the job without breaking environmental protection limits on output temperature.
Building plants that rely on resources which may become unavailable under increased climate strain doesn't seem too useful to me.On A good argument posted 2 years, 7 months ago 13 Responses
Acting on multiple scales
"There isn't a single American household above the poverty line that couldn't cut their CO2 at least 25 percent in six months through a straightforward series of fairly simple and terrifically cost-effective measures," he said.
Except, of course, for those who already did. And without beating a trail toward the poverty line either. I find this sort of all-inclusive statement saddening, in that it gives no praise to existent successes.
Offsets worry me because polution isn't just a global issue, it also changes a lot about quality of living within an area. I don't see a way for it to cause increased equality in polution burdens, but perhaps I'm missing something.On Dueling assumptions posted 2 years, 7 months ago 18 Responses
Lamenting
How many jobs will turn someone down because they deem public transit "too unreliable"? I know they technically aren't allowed to, but it's happened to me several times. This has become a car culture not because that was the will of the public but because those with the money have pulled the strings to make it one. Now I hear stories of people pawning off belongings to have enough money to drive to work, when there is no option other than to drive in their area.
I walk, bus, and rollerblade everywhere, no cars for me. People have assumed I was homeless, assumed I was running away from a bad husband, all sorts of things, rarely is their first thought that perhaps I might prefer it this way. My good honest labor keeps my back strong, my lungs full (and of less smog), and my conscious a little clearer. I pity them their dusty air conditioning and long freeway delays.On The built environment discriminates against those who choose not to drive posted 3 years, 3 months ago 7 Responses