Journalist: "So what do you think long-distance air travel is going to look like in 2050?"
Climate Scientist *laughs derisively*: "By 2050, most long-distance holiday destinations will be uninhabitable, so I expect the majority of long-distance air traffic to be non-existent by 2050."
Phew. Hadn't heard it THAT bleakly during a live interview yet.
What is a "long distance holiday destination".
London, Germany, New York are all far away. But so is 99% of the planet
@Br3nda @tbaldauf
And a book tour by train across the country?
Or to a single festival or event if there aren’t others lined up along the route?
There’s no way I can tour my #accordion book in North America
There’s bands who have done tone tours by bicycle
North America is so damn big
Times I wished I lived in Europe .6
Author readings could so easily be virtual
But I’d miss talking with real people
Maybe pair local author events? Vancouver/Berlin
@AccordionBruce
> North America is so damn big
Bigger than China, where you can get almost anywhere by train, many of them by electric fast train or sleeper train?
@strypey @AccordionBruce @Br3nda @tbaldauf Canada, China, and USA are all pretty similar in size — in the world, Canada is no. 2, China no. 3, and USA no. 4*.
But together, Canada, USA, Mexico (which is no. 14 in the world) — ie. North America — are more than twice the the size of China and, in fact, bigger than the largest country in the world, Russia. So yes, North America is so damn big.
Should there be better rail offerings in North America? Of course there should. But the problems posed by sheer size are non-trivial.
* depending on how you count, USA can be larger than China — but they are regardless pretty close.
@fgraver
> together, Canada, USA, Mexico... — ie. North America — are more than twice the the size of China and... bigger than the largest country in the world, Russia
OK, but Russia also seems to offer better rail services than North America;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Russia
... as does India;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_India
... although neither is as advanced as China. If you look at rail across China, India and Russia as a whole, that's much bigger than North America.
@fgraver
> Should there be better rail offerings in North America? Of course there should. But the problems posed by sheer size are non-trivial
Granted, but I raised China as an example of how size is not a barrier to a functioning passenger rail system if the political-economic decision-makers prioritise it. I doubt we disagree that people in North America suffer from generations of over-investment in roads and cars, and underinvestment in passenger rail.
@sj_zero
> China is a poor example since to be comparable you'd need approximately 8 billion people on the American continent
Please explain the logic underlying this conclusion.
@sj_zero
> When it comes to climate comparisons, I think it isn't so simple as "trains use less fuel per passenger"
Agreed, and this is where the rubber meets the road. If you accept the greenhouse effect, and that the planet is warming, then it's worth investing in things that aren't financially efficient, as long as they reduce carbon emissions.
So the key question is, would a China-style fast train network in North America reduce carbon emissions?
(1/?)
@strypey @sj_zero @fgraver @tbaldauf
I recently learned that the new #FastFerry here uses more fuel than flying between #Vancouver and #Victoria
I didn’t expect flying to be more efficient than water-travel, but I guess if you speed up the boat pushing it through the water costs a lot
So doing the math on these projects may turn out results we don’t anticipate
And long distance travel may end up being harder to justify
The post you're replying to is just a jumping off point, as indicated by the (1/?) at the bottom. Did you read the whole thread?
@strypey
I did
Funny how mastodon threads work
I was responding as much to what was above with my random interjection
Sorry
@AccordionBruce
> I was responding as much to what was above with my random interjection
No worries. Just trying to figure out some more context before deciding if it needed a reply from me.