This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful
3 min read
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here.
On track
Do you really need to fly from Paris to Bordeaux? Not when there’s a train that can get you there quickly and easily.
That’s what the French government decided in 2023 when it banned short-haul flights between Paris and a handful of easily reachable cities in 2023 in an effort to reduce emissions. Austria made a similar move a few years earlier. And according to a Climate TRACE story shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas, it worked: Both countries have seen a slow but steady decrease in domestic aviation emissions.
What would happen if more countries followed France and Austria’s lead? According to calculations by Climate TRACE software engineer and data scientist Ishan Saraswat, broadly substituting rail service for domestic flights less than 500 miles could reduce Europe’s domestic aviation emissions by nearly 40 percent.
Michaela says:
I found this gem in Bill McKibben’s newsletter The Crucial Years, which is almost always a crucial read. City center to city center, trains are infinitely nicer than dealing with airports, at least for me. Until we get the blimps up and running, more rail, please!
Date night
A couple weeks back, Executive Editor Will Doig shared a NYC Parks invitation for what the department was calling “Parents’ Night Out!” — an evening of free babysitting for kids ages six to 13 at local recreation centers. Now, the New York Times has followed up with a fun (“and relatable,” adds editorial director and newish parent Rebecca Worby) look at how parents spent their night off.
Will says:
Summer is the season of “free” in New York — free concerts, free movies, car-free streets — but offering parents a night of free babysitting might be one of the best ideas yet.
What else we’re reading
On These Motorcycles, the Thrill Is Electric — shared by Editorial Director Rebecca Worby from the New York Times
Her Brain Was Broken. It Was Fixed With Sound — Not a Scalpel — shared by Michaela Haas from WIRED
Inside Nova Scotia’s grassroots movement to document rising seas and receding beaches — shared by Rebecca Worby from Be Giant
In other news…
Speaking of kids, singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant’s new album Cabinet Of Wonder, which comes out this week, features a series of reimagined Mother Goose rhymes. It’s part of a larger educational and public arts project inspired by Merchant’s time as artist-in-residence at a Head Start preschool program in upstate New York.
Learn more about the album and check out the full project, complete with resources for teachers, parents and children.
The post What We’re Reading: Should Short Flights Be Banned? appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
