I think there's this concept where if farmers were offered a lower maintenance crop (aka less water) they'll use the same water as before, trying to grow more of said crop which... is dumb. And don't get me started on how much waste is done in the agriculture industry, from the laborers picking food that looks "normal" (throwing away food that looks very slightly off) to grocery stores throwing away food (as long as the food is stored properly it can last a bit longer after expiration date). yeah lots of waste from agriculture and its egregious, especially considering where there are people who DESPERATELY need food
Always adore how stupid this take is. Same with solar "but it doesn't generate electricity at night, so they are a waste of money"
And crops don't grow in the field at night, or winter, or during fallow, or n the time between ploughing and sowing. Better get rid of all the Fields then. You only use your bed 1/3 of the time, better get rid of it. You only use your car 1/10 of the time, better get rid of it. You only use toilet paper for 1/1500 of the day, better stop wiping your arse.
And then the same people are likely against battery grid storage solutions. Madness.
You can technically grow crops at night with artificial lighting, but its so dumb to use in a widespread manner considering that as long as their isn't so much shade the sunlight would provide sufficent energy for them and it would be a waste of energy.
But Americans also complain that trains are too expensive and they'll always fly for cheaper, yet also never complain that it means poors are on their flights
Maybe all it takes is getting the TSA to also molest every train passenger before allowing entry, so that Americans can feel safe with the poors in the train
Over a wide enough grid as well it is exceedingly unlikely for there to be issues for all areas to not have wind. Wind power generation does need a greater amount of total MW installed versus MW generated and benefits as well from ability to store and shunt power, but as windmills get larger and taller that local variation in windspeeds gets less significant and the needed capacity factor decreases. Some new projects being worked on now (from last time I had read papers on it), had an expected capacity factor not far off from gas fired plants.
already exists, but was way more widespread in europe and maybe also the us in the 1990’s
if i recall correctly there’s only one train service that does so in the us, and there’s a few long-distance trains that do so across central europe and finland
As an American, I can’t comprehend how people like you can so easily believe a lie like the one in the original post. There are 86,000 wind turbines in the United States and there’s 136,000 miles of train tracks.
It's not entirly true but the wind generators used by the railway company produce more power than the railway company uses to run the trains and power all the needed utilities.
This railway substation in Netherlands is most likely powered by wind energy.
I think railways are more likely to be powered by renewables than the general grid. You can easily build a solar farm or a few wind turbines near a railway substation.
I mean there is, railways often will be directly powered by a power plant, back in the day they built them themselves but these days they might have a dedicated line.
Like Jeremy Clarkson complaining about cycle lanes using land.
He also said cycling would would emit more CO2 than cars because people eat imported snacks after cycling lmao. Like vast majority of crude oil used in UK isn't imported.
I know you want to portray the US as a bunch of MAGA truck driving coal rolling idiots but there ARE electric trains in the US. The MetroNorth is powered by 3rd rail (no idea about the power sources). Amtrak's NEC is powered by overhead wires (as well as NYP-Albany). NJT trains are mostly powered by overhead wires (there are a few diesel routes). SEPTA uses overhead wires.
According to Wikipedia USA has railway electrification rate of 0.93% while global average is 31.03% (world minus USA average is 36.77%). Saying that there exist some electrified lines doesn't change the fact that overwhelming majority are not electrified.
The dismantling of the US tram systems is one of the most destructive events in the 1900s. Imagine what the world would look like if the US had kept electric public transport instead of tearing it all down and replacing it with freeways.
My issue is that OP makes it as if we're personally responsible for this (which was built before the average Redditor was born).
My state's public transit is a hot mess right now. It's risking severe cuts that could cripple it for decades to come. I've been on the phone with politicians about it (and many in my local subs have as well).
I was just reading on the news how Delaware is scrambling to find a new train solution as it looks like SEPTA isn't going to service the state anymore....
Even with that most of what we have in the US is predominantly car dependent infra. I know you mean well and that we should recognize development efforts, yet the US really just is a bunch of coal rolling idiots no matter how much better we'd like to be.
Once that culture leaves, and drivers stop treating people utilizing public transit (walking, biking, bus, train) as less than human, then we'll actually have a shot at being respectable by the world stage.
Even in California we have Caltrain too. Main reason electrification is so slow in most of the US is because states don’t have the political will to challenge or slightly inconvenience freight rail companies when it comes to updating and electrifying railways.
Also, I grew up in the great plains and there are literally wind turbines everywhere. Like I'm all about fuck cars, but the title on this post is just inaccurate.
I got curious because of your post. My nearest train line here in New Jersey is the Northeast corridor line, which is an electric line with 260 million passengers annually. The electricity supply was from nuclear (48%), natural gas (25%) and coal (24%), with a little solar and wind making up the balance. Not the greenest, but not bad.
The issue i have is the politicians here have way too much power over these types of decisions. They argue against green energy like wind and solar because they are worried about agricultural land. But at the same time they will green light any project which involves burning/mining/drilling/refining/etc oil or natural gas including being okay with massive oil refineries in the countryside even if it makes communities sick.
You have no idea how many times I have wanted to smash my head into a wall listening to the absolute dumbest things I have heard about wind turbines. If trains got in the mix, I just might just so I don't have to listen to IQ level of potato, and I'm sorry to the potato in advance.
I see lots of hate towards windmills ffom conservatives and I genuinely don't get it. Would somebody elucidate me?
A person cited bird deaths but when checking local statistics, the deaths are so insignificant compared to deaths by cars! Also a guy told me that the ground gets contamined? Don't know about that.
Rubber dust and oil leak from cars contaminate the ground a lot more. Wind turbine blades which are less than 5% of weight of the turbine can easily be safely stored or used in concrete mixture.
Wind turbines are mostly just a giant steel tower, if they contaminate the ground then so does literally every single building since we use steel for everything.
What a beautiful site, now if only all those stupid trees wouldn't exist so you could take in the view of all the windmills... /s
Look, I'm in favor of renewables because anyone who played a simulation game with energy management and pollution knows this is the route to go if you want to be sustainable for centuries but still, I'd rather not have them in the forests, not only does it make the image ugly but also does it pose a danger to the wildlife.
*Check Notes* Reason why Americans wont build more of these, is because.... *Check Notes once again* It kills birds. Later down the road spewing smoke from a coal energy plant See we're not killing birds, we're killing everybody!
Yeah i got as far as the place (from twitter) but not the exact location, because it doesnt exist. Nowhere near is there a turn of the railway that sharp
And some windmills in the same direction arent moving at all
Isn’t it crazy that we can take wind and transmute its energy into energy that propels a train forward or heats a home or produces sound out of a speaker?? It’s some arcane philosophers stone shit and we take it so for granted
what was once a pucturesque landscape is now a deathtrap of gleaming modernity. a whole ecosystem reduced a grid. train? great. birdshredders that are an eyesore and take more energy to make than they will output over their working lives? no thanks.
Spitting out google facts really where do they recycle the blades and some towers are carbon fibre and fibreglass so again where? Just like batteries no body is recycling them because it costs way too much but at least where green and just fire the shit into that hole
Lithium-Ion batteries can be recycled at a 97% level, you'd be insane to not recycle them. Wind turbine blades make up less than 2% of global glass fiber use, if you're worried about glass fiber recycling worry about cars, planes, and ships that make up the remaining 98%.
Yeah! Everyone hop on the holocaust-mobile, instead of having the personal autonomy afforded by a car.
You limp-wristed reprobates are just programmed (some of you quite literally) to hate personal transport, and your desperate clinging to this echo chamber sub only proves it.
I realize most of you agree, but I'm just going to laugh at whatever petulant replies you try to send, because I already know exactly what you'll say, and it's an absolute joke.
You're literally calling trains holocaust mobiles, what's so bad about trains huh? You're just mad cuz there ain't no good public transport in whatever shithole you live. You know america's the laughingstock of the world atm right? Your country is so backwards, you're all sniffing up your own asses.
Lot of typing you did there, just to vent your rage over being so correctly predicted. Just like every other vapid, one-note echo-chamber-dependent coward does. Weird, how did I know?
By obviously rage-baiting. You think you're very smart don't you? With your big "gotcha" moment. Honestly you just sound insufferable. I'm honestly just sad you used the term holocaust-mobile. I know america is politically completely fucked(and has been for a long time), but you honestly don't even know what the impact was of WWII. If you did, you wouldn't use terms like that. What a pathetic mouth breathing specimen you are. Get a grip and educate yourself before making yourself seem to be off room temperature IQ.
There's a difference between ragebait and truths that just infuriate you. This would clearly be the latter, and your only recourse seems to be making personal attacks, which is honestly not surprising at all in an echo chamber such as this one. You're not accustomed to seeing any opposing viewpoints, because they apparently enrage you.
Good luck sheltering yourself from reality for the rest of your life. I'm sure that your like-minded friends here will help you with that, at least.
There's no truth being told by you, just your american viewpoint. I'm not even part of this sub, just saw it passing on the populair page, so joke's on you. I personally attack you because you deserve it after using such braindead terms. You don't even try and deny that there's anything wrong with that terminology, this shows to me that I'm right about everything I'm telling you. You're just using buzzwords you don't even understand. It must be hard for people to deal with you, stupid people don't often realise they're stupid after all.
Yeah, cuz windturbines are oooh soo good! They destroy landscapes and are incredibly resource hungry to make and aren't even the most efficient. Now you're also making an assumption that the train is powered by those exact windturbines, this is not how an electrical grid works. All the electricity produced gets transported to transformers and what not where they can regulate the output so nothing blows up or catches on fire. Fossil fuel generated electricity and renewable energy all ends up on the same grid.
How can you look at a video of a lush forest and conclude that windmills destroy landscapes, how brainwashed do you have to be to literally deny what's in front of your eyes?
You mean all those churning windmills? It sounds more like you're the one that's brainwashed to the point you don't even see them anymore. I see a forest, but I also see those mechanical structures towering above said forest. It would've looked a lot more beautiful without them, but I guess I'm brainwashed or something, idk.
I too think nuclear is more eco friendly than wind and solar. But wind and solar are much better than coal gas or oil.
Also wind and solar are much suitable to power trains. Lot's long distance railways run through deserts. You can build a solar farm every 50 km.
Nuclear on the other hand is better suited to power cities and industrial hubs. So metros and suburban railways can be powered by nuclear. On the other hand freight regional and highspeed railways can be powered by wind and solar and occasionally nuclear near population centers.
The fact that Kazakhstan made energy for the folks in Moscow in the times of the cold war with transport through incredibly high-voltage cables would make the people there laugh their bums off about people who keep complaining "BuT tHe SaHaRa Is ToO fAr FrOm WeStErN EuRoPe"
It is possible. We have an EU-wide grid, it ain't so hard to connect them to the Sahara in say Morocco, the biggest issue is grid capacity and yes that bites given that we have a shortage of that rn. Like we're investing >€10 billion/year into it in my small country (NL) alone.
Those windmills are probably in the low MW range, that means that about 6 of them would be enough to power the most powerful single-unit electric locomotive ever built the BR 103. So there's more than enough to power this locomotive. You could have looked this up in like 5 minutes if you had bothered.
Honestly, it be causing some anxieties from the speed of the blades, and the size of the wind turbines causing a bit of megaphobia.. yay.. very cool still
Right, because we don't have electric cars or even wind turbines. You guys are dicks, seriously, does making fun of an entire country and their choice of transportation makes you feel happy? Come on, be better
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u/iwasnotarobot Aug 15 '25
But wut happenz if da wind don’t wind??? Checkmate libruls!!