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Wednesday reading, fish 'n' birds, and messages on trucks
In Aventura en el Amazonas both Mayam and Nashi are learning about the chain of life--Mayam when her mother talks to her about piranhas and other carnivorous fish, and Nashi when he sees a cayman gobble up a roseate spoonbill.
"Some fish feed on others," their mother tells Mayam, who is feeling like it would be good to get rid of some of the more marauding of the the carnivorous fish. "It's like a staircase: if you take away one step, all of it comes crashing down."
And
"Nature knows how to do its thing, even if at first we don't understand" says their father to Nashi.
I didn't see a roseate spoonbill, but I did see a harpy eagle, with its fierce, strange face. (The one I saw looked like the one on the right--photo from the Miami zoo's Harpy Eagle Project)
And I didn't fish for piranhas, but I had some kind of carnivorous fish one meal--and I saw a truly gigantic fish in the market. (It's a bit daunting--it's behind a cut)
Yesterday I took Little Springtime and her fiancée to see my father, and during the drive, I passed a truck with a message on the back of its trailer: "Don't like trucks? Buy less stuff!"
Very strange! The driver feels upset about other drivers, presumably car drivers, not "liking" trucks? But the driver is in a great huge 18-wheeler--why should they fuss about the opinions of car drivers? How can it possibly affect them? (Where are they hearing all this negativity?) I'm pretty neutral on trucks, but my impression is that people who feel negatively about them are mainly expressing nervousness about driving near them--or are complaining about bad driving on the part of the trucks--not, y'know, saying trucks are evil or that trucks should disappear, which is kind of what the driver's message seemed to imply.
"Buy less stuff" is disingenuous when all sorts of necessities travel by truck, but okay, let's say people could truly buy less stuff ... then the driver of the truck might lose their job? So on that level too the message was a head scratcher.
"Some fish feed on others," their mother tells Mayam, who is feeling like it would be good to get rid of some of the more marauding of the the carnivorous fish. "It's like a staircase: if you take away one step, all of it comes crashing down."
And
"Nature knows how to do its thing, even if at first we don't understand" says their father to Nashi.
I didn't see a roseate spoonbill, but I did see a harpy eagle, with its fierce, strange face. (The one I saw looked like the one on the right--photo from the Miami zoo's Harpy Eagle Project)
And I didn't fish for piranhas, but I had some kind of carnivorous fish one meal--and I saw a truly gigantic fish in the market. (It's a bit daunting--it's behind a cut)
Yesterday I took Little Springtime and her fiancée to see my father, and during the drive, I passed a truck with a message on the back of its trailer: "Don't like trucks? Buy less stuff!"
Very strange! The driver feels upset about other drivers, presumably car drivers, not "liking" trucks? But the driver is in a great huge 18-wheeler--why should they fuss about the opinions of car drivers? How can it possibly affect them? (Where are they hearing all this negativity?) I'm pretty neutral on trucks, but my impression is that people who feel negatively about them are mainly expressing nervousness about driving near them--or are complaining about bad driving on the part of the trucks--not, y'know, saying trucks are evil or that trucks should disappear, which is kind of what the driver's message seemed to imply.
"Buy less stuff" is disingenuous when all sorts of necessities travel by truck, but okay, let's say people could truly buy less stuff ... then the driver of the truck might lose their job? So on that level too the message was a head scratcher.
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- rail transport causes much less carbon emissions for long distance freight than trucks do
- long distance truck driving has a high level of deaths in accidents, both for truck drivers and for drivers around them.
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basically VERY VERY VERY thick slabs of concrete that won't crack under the weight of a massive fully loaded freight truck; a crane; and a side section of railway line seperate from but connected to the main railway line -
which allow sea containers to be lifted off a truck and put directly onto a train without any need for manual handling or unpacking.
This means that you can use a truck for local transport (farm to train station; iron ore mine to train station), but a train for long distance transport (train station to city; or train station to international sea port)
One of the main barriers to using trains is the need to unpack trucks and repack onto the train - intermodal terminals get around this.
They're not cheap - $1 million to $2 million Australian each - but they pay for themselves quite quickly through
- reduced freight costs
- reduced carbon emissions
- reduced road maintenance costs (heavy freight trucks are hell on the wear-and-tear on roads compared to small passenger vehicles)
- reduced truck accidents (healthcare costs, long term disability costs)
I'm no longer working for this Dept, but I'd LOVE to see more of these built worldwide. They're such a good investment into economic benefits, social benefits, and environmental benefits.
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