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I did see that ONE Article regarding your argument.. I have more
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I get it... just because you can find more articles means you're right and I'm wrong. Fine, I'll breakdown why your articles don't convince me.
1. planetgreen - it's 5 reasons why you should ride trains to reduce CO2 emission. Problem is, 4 of the 5 have NOTHING to do with emissions at all. Scenery, relaxation, people, and price have NO impact on CO2 output what-so-ever. Also, they don't have any evidence to back themselves up. They're simply stating their opinion hoping you'll believe it without asking questions. Obviously you have.
2. dailygreen - they're comparing a train to a car, not air travel. That pretty much renders this one irrelevant don't ya think?
3/4. seat61/cahighspeedrail - for starters the article starts with the following sentence: "It's not an exact science, and I'm certainly no expert." But the real reason I'm not convinced is because they fail to take in to account anything other than emissions produced from propulsion from one place to another. What about the footprint of the tracks, the production of asphalt, tar, and iron, used in RR tracks, maintaining the tracks, producing the fuel for the trains, etc. The article I cited took ALL of this into account, and compared "full life-cycle" emissions, yours do not.
Now, with all of that said, I think there is definite benefit to using light rail systems for mass transit in urban areas instead of everyone driving their huge SUV with only 1 person in it. That's a no-brainer. But for distance travel such as vacations, airplanes are the way to go for me. And you're right, flying for free does have something to do with that, but I also take our environment very seriously and do everything I can to reduce my impact. I grow my own garden, I compost my trash, I ride a small motorcycle instead of driving a "gas guzzling" car or truck, I utilize solar panels and plan on getting a personal wind turbine soon. Obviously you prefer riding a train for your own reasons, and I prefer an airplane for my own reasons. One of which I believe is that they, while not perfect, are better in the long run for the environment than trains. I'm ok with agreeing to disagree.
