Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Pilgrimadge to Green
California puts forth a vote of their own, argreeing upon plans for an 800 mile high speed train system.
Removing up to 12.7 billion pounds of greenhouse gasses each year, these rail lines stand to become tourist destinations of their own.
Creating 450,00 new jobs and reducing foreign dependence on foreign oil by 12 million barrels a year, California's newly-voted-upon high speed train system could be one of those landmarks of practicality that become synonymous with a country's global image.
The rail lines stretch from San Fransisco to Los Angeles, connecting every major city in between in a move that has the potential to change the way Californians move through that area as significantly as the introduction of Japan's Shinkansen. 
While living in Japan, a topic that came up consistently in talks to people back home was if I had yet been able to ride one of their bullet trains. They asked about Mt. Fuji less often.
Since it began running its high speed trains in 1964, the Shinkansen system has carried nearly 4.5 billion passengers. Numbers like that are astounding when you convert them to eco-bucks.
The numbers have the potential to do the same for the 12th largest producer of greenhouses gasses on earth.
I think it's encouraging to think that eco-inspired buildings and transportation systems have the potential to become iconic symbols for a country - thus making them the place to have your photo taken.
New solutions are developed out of any kind of crisis to improve future conditions. Global warming has (most) everyone's attention so
eco-attractions remind the traveler of
the ingeniuty and determination of
the human species - the same as older
earthling momuments like the pyramids.
Abu Dhabi's spectacular Masdar Headquarters is the world's first positive energy building, generating more power even needed for its assembly.
Future travelers, ever in search of sources of inspiration, might look to these inventions as evidence of how our species coped with its challenges. As with the other of the world's most gazed-upon structures, they reveal an hommage to what a society held most dear. In that opinion, I look forward to more of these projects of the future...
...like Copenhagen's new photovoltaic-sheathed skyscapers by Steven Holl Architects.
Images via Inhabitat
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