Trains are the most sustainable & green form of transportation
Electric high speed rail is the most energy efficient of all trains. A national high speed rail system is the centerpiece of a sustainable America, and will significantly reduce congestion and our dependence on cars and oil, while cutting our carbon emissions by epic proportions. The entire system can be powered by clean, safe renewable energy including wind, solar, geothermal, and ocean/tidal. Clean electric trains are a major form of daily transportation in numerous countries, and are the single most powerful transportation choice that can solve serious mobility, energy, environmental, economic, health, and social problems simultaneously - on a global scale.
A 2006 study by the Center for Clean Air Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology concluded that building a high-speed rail system across the US could result in 29 million fewer car trips and 500,000 fewer plane flights each year, saving 6 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions – the equivalent of removing a million cars from the road annually.
"A 2010 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences surveyed 1,372 climate researchers and found that 97-98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of anthropogenic climate change outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."
"Grid-connected traction offers the only realistic option for significantly reducing oil use in transportation over the next 10 years." -Anthony Perl
Sustainable and Green
Not Sustainable or Green
"Tokyo's electric trains get 6,600 miles to the gallon." -USA Today, March 4, 2008
"Building a new system of high speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper, and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already over-burdened aviation system - and everybody stands to benefit." President Obama, April 16, 2009
"Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act" -Albert Einstein
Incredible energy efficiency of high speed trains. (Chart source: www.uic.org)
External costs lowest with rail. (Chart source: www.uic.org)
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Sustainable transportation for America: 3-tiered electric rail network
USHSR at the 2012 Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo
Check out Sustainability and the California HSR Project
Analysis of the sustainability benefits of the new state wide rail project: More info New California Government Climate Change Information Website: Climate Change Facts
Calling out the media: We are "tired of seeing the media orchestrate splashy Jello-wrestling matches, under the guise of providing "balance," by weighing the US National Academies, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and "well over 95 percent of scientists who actually work on climate change" against a "denialist"" -Closing the Window on Climate Change
"The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them." -Albert Einstein
jobs | economic recovery | mobility | safety | energy security | climate solution
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US HSR. Making it happen.
US HSRABOUT USUS HSR MAPBENEFITSTRAINSINFRASTRUCTURENEWSSUSTAINABILITY --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US High Speed Rail Association Capitol Hill Office at Union Station 10 G Street NE, Suite 710 Washington, DC 20002 (202) 248-5001
