Rail transport
Why Poughkeepsie is a great place to wait for the end of the world
Grist / Michelle Nijhuis / 01 July 2011
[Author and social critic James] Kunstler -- clearly an incurable contrarian -- likes Poughkeepsie. He lives in the Hudson Valley himself, in a far cuter but similarly sized town, and he predicts that such neither-village-nor-city places will one day be just right. "We'll see people moving to places that are scaled appropriately to our energy diet," he said -- towns small enough to walk across, but big enough to pool their resources for, say, a hydropower plant. And with good farmland on one side and a great big river on the other, Poughkeepsie is ideally placed for local food production and carbon-free transportation. "Towns like Poughkeepsie are at their nadir now," he conceded, "but they have a lot of virtues that are going to become apparent in the years ahead."
United Church moderator rides rails into Winnipeg
Winnipeg Free Press / Brenda Suderman / 23 October 2010
For people in the United Church, the right thing might be ensuring church-owned buildings are energy efficient, since Tindal's research shows that about 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings.
Halifax: Heads in sand
Halifax Coast / Tim Bousquet / 07 July 2010
More and more lately, I’m struck by how our society is simply ignoring the looming challenges that are coming our way, that are upon us already. First and foremost is peak oil. This is no longer speculative: global oil production has been flat for the past couple of years and will fall far short of demand in coming years. Whether the actual peak of oil production is a couple of years into the future or we passed it a couple of years ago is almost immaterial---we’re at the plateau, regardless, and the near-term future will see skyrocketing gas prices and gaps in availability. Increasingly, we’ll find gas won’t be available for purchase, and when it is, many of us won’t be able to afford it.
CN growing “green” wood pellet traffic at double-digit rates
CN / Press Release / 05 November 2009
North America's largest mover of forest products – is on track to haul more than 800,000 tons of wood pellets this year and sees more opportunities in the future for this “green” source of heating energy.
“Since 2005, we have experienced a 16 per cent compounded annual growth in our wood pellet traffic, and we see growing potential for this business in domestic and international markets,” said James Foote, executive vice-president, Sales and Marketing.
