My carbon footprint has been much too high, largely because I spent years flying far too much for academic conferences and my personal life. Since 2019 I have committed to flying once per year at most. I take trains in the US over short and long distances, including cross-country. Amtrak is a beautiful, if deeply flawed, mode of travel. Taking the train and biking are relatively easy for me because of my job and other privileges I enjoy.

To make train use easier, the US government must dramatically improve the speed and efficiency of the Amtrak system, while reducing its carbon impact. Other wealthy countries’ train systems put Amtrak to shame, largely because the US has not invested in train travel due to the dominance of the US auto industry and investments in the military industrial complex that have come at the expense of investments in public infrastructures of all kinds.