When pigs fly

[cjsmith]

The Netherlands’ national airline is encouraging people not to fly

Comments

[hitchhiker]

whoa

[amaebi]

"Some Dutch politicians have already dismissed the campaign as simple greenwashing."

That paragraph does continue to specify more incisive policy that isn't just plaintive advisory.

But I wanted to call out this dialectic move of doubting the reformer's sincerity or motives. It's terrifically common, not generally relevant, and seems to be widely accepted.

[cjsmith]

To me it reads like filler. I worry that it is taken for content by some readers.

[amaebi]

That argument and ones that I think have to be derived from it are made regularly by conservatives-- but I think they've been getting called on it, in that it seems (in my tiny lens) to be in some decline.

[mrdreamjeans]

The Dutch often lead the way on environmental issues and social issues ... Instead or flying, I would take the train more often in the States, if our system was as efficient as travel by train is in Europe. Our system is antiquated, expensive and unreliable.

[cjsmith]

I would too, and I agree our system does not compare favorably. Our distances are a bit larger too, train travel more difficult. Coast to coast is a challenge.

[mrdreamjeans]

I often rode the high speed trains in Germany when I was working there ... Good point about distances ... But, when you let the infrastructure get so far behind the times, that issue gets further and further away from being solved.

[cjsmith]

nod. I don't foresee a huge push toward trains here. We'd need a big national rah rah project ("a man on the moon!") or an economic incentive for profitability, and we are likely to get neither.