A new oil discovery in the Permian Basin may upset the apple cart.Neocon Republicans may see this as a excuse to reduce funding for Urban Transit and Passenger Rail. I dont see transit use going down in traditional old core cities of the East Coast as most people I have talked to is the reason they use the train is because of lack of cheap parking downtown. But however cheap oil may mean more suberban sprawl in newer cities like Dallas and cities that are about to tip in favor of rail like Indynapolis and Kansas City may opt out. More suberban sprawl means strip malls and cookie cutter housing developments and less green space to absorb greenhouse gases like CO2 and displacememnt of animals from there habitat. The discovery of the Permian (http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/17/us/midland-texas-mammoth-oil-discovery/) basin oil reserve is nothing short of a ecological disaster. The oil is not just drill and pump but will take billions of tons of frak sand and frak fluides to extract. The cheap oil will lead to exessive highway building and more cars that put us on the path to a runaway greenhouse effect on this planet on top of the lifting of restrictions of coal power plants. The only way to stop this is for a our presidenrt Obama at the last minute declare the whole Permian Basin a National Park or National Wild Life Refuge. Yes I am seriuse the lives of everyone depends on this.
Indigenous peoples will demand the deportation of all illegal aliens!
Don’t know where Trump and the rest of us will go.
Laugh today, roast and starve tomorrow.
I know this is humorous – but get real: 4/100 of a degree average rise over 40 years? Not exactly ‘roasting’. And even the highest estimates by the European ‘climate scientasters’ are more than an order of magnitude less than typical daily climate variation, let alone ‘baseline’ elevation of significantly higher temperatures. (I’m willing to accept much higher maxima; that being what I was told would be the “result by around 2050” calculated as of the early '70s at then-forecast rates of increase in fossil-fuel consumption and deforestation. Then it was a given that peak temperatures in Kansas and Nebraska would be over 140F, and the ‘wheat belt’ would move to the Canadian shield region. That’s getting well into roasting territory! But none of the current actual science points to anything like that severity of effect except through synergistic or chaotic effects that none of the Europeans comprehend.)
And why would ‘starvation’ come in when enhanced CO2 is well understood, physically, chemically, and historically, to contribute to enhanced plant growth?
A far better claim would be about storm damage, and having to swim with the added water going into the oceans and the ‘water cycle’ over land masses. Those are bad enough already, but not as popular as much of the BS that seems to be passing for academic consensus on this topic.
The Earth has vacilated between Snowball Earth and Tropical Earth, many times without humans.
My money is on forces being involved within ‘space’ that we know very little if anything about. While nature abhors a vacuum, it also abhors consistency. With the Earth moving through space around the Sun. The Sun moving through space around the center of the Milkey Way. The Milkey Way moving through space around the center of the Universe. We are in ‘new’ space every second of our existence, each segment of ‘new’ space is in reality unknown.
The folks in Midland will love you…really!
We need to remember a few things:
- Fracking technology costs more than conventional drilling. To make this worthwhile, the price per barrel needs to be higher. OPEC is meeting to make this happen.
2.Regarding urban sprawl, this has been going on since after WWII.
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In spite of lower gas prices, Amtrak posted recently that ridership has risen to a new record. With more driving comes more traffic jams.
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There will likely be more such discoveries due to the Trump Administration opening up more areas to exploration.
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The freight railroads will benefit with more frac sand unit trains helping out their bottom line, as well as perhaps more CBR traffic.
“With more driving comes more traffic jams.”
Carry a loaf of bread with so you can eat jam sandwiches while waiting for the traffic to begin moving.[:)]
Best analysis of climate change I’ve heard in a long time.
Metaphor. And try reading some actual science instead of sounding like Reagan-lite.
The cost of fuel has defined rail ridership for ages. Gas goes up, ridership goes up. And vice versa.
It’s been documented that the climate is changing. It has for eons. Sometimes it gets warmer, sometimes it gets colder.
To solely blame climate change on humans is a human conceit. That’s not to say that the actions of mankind haven’t had an effect - it is to say that there are myriad reasons for climate change to occur, and only a few of them can be pinned on humans…
Excerpt from NASA
Understanding the causes and consequences of climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. NASA’s advanced space missions within its Earth science research, applications, and technology program make essential contributions to national and international scientific assessments of climate change that governments, businesses, and citizens all over the world rely on in making many of their most significant investments and decisions. Through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), NASA works in partnership with thirteen other federal agencies to determine the relative impact of human-induced and naturally occurring climate change, addressing an important scientific challenge and providing significant societal benefit.
Excerpt from The Guardian
Donald Trump is poised to elimin
[quote user=“wanswheel”]
Excerpt from NASA
Understanding the causes and consequences of climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. NASA’s advanced space missions within its Earth science research, applications, and technology program make essential contributions to national and international scientific assessments of climate change that governments, businesses, and citizens all over the world rely on in making many of their most significant investments and decisions. Through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), NASA works in partnership with thirteen other federal agencies to determine the relative impact of human-induced and naturally occurring climate change, addressing an important scientific challenge and providing significant societal benefit.
Excerpt from The Guardian
I don’t see much science supporting your position.
Urban sprawl has been going on since the Pilgrams landed at Plymouth Rock. Just ask the Native populations. It was kicked into high gear with the building of the railroads and completition of the transcontinental rail routes.
Trust me when I say I have read and studied far more on the ‘actual science’ than you ever will, or likely will ever comprehend.
Railroads can outlive humans by many decades. They need to plan for climate change as though it were likely to affect them directly.
http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/transportation
Spare me the BS!
You asked me “HOW?” Please commence to refrain from asking me for anything.
Meanwhile, back at the original question…
Yes, transit use will grow even with cheap oil.
In the sprawliest of all American cities, Altanta, the trend is to move back into the city. This is being driven by millenials and empty nesters. I know several of each that have done exactly that. The recent election referendum on more money for MARTA passed in a landslide. The price of oil isn’t a factor in the equation…