Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity

Spain has committed to building an ambitious high-speed rail network — part of an overall decision to prioritize public transportation investments over highway spending. The country’s crisis will severely test its ability to achieve its ambitions, but it is providing leadership that the United States–confronted with crumbling infrastructure and over-reliance on automobiles–could learn from.

Spain now has the longest high-speed rail network in Europe, surpassing France. Yet France still has a huge lead in terms of passenger travel. European countries remain among the world’s passenger rail leaders. But relative to population, Japan is the overall champion.

Here is another installment in our series of blog posts on rail developments.  Like the earlier posts in the series, this is drawn from our [Read More...]

This blog post was co-authored by Michael Renner and Gary Gardner The Worldwatch Institute has produced two companion reports that assess the state of rail [Read More...]

Actions have consequences. But so does inaction. This is particularly true in the field of climate policy. Environmental advocates have long complained that by failing [Read More...]

High-tech equipment, precision instruments, and miles of electrical wiring at the Siemens production facility in Krefeld, Germany, might fool you into thinking that what’s being [Read More...]

On October 27, 2009, the United Steelworkers (USW)—North America’s largest industrial union—and Spain’s Mondragón Internacional, S.A. signed an agreement to collaborate in establishing Mondragón-style manufacturing cooperatives in the United States and Canada. It could be the dawn of a new, non-capitalist economy.