75% of the world materials used by Americans?

[Saint]

This is what I often heard about, true or not?
Americans also dubbed the biggest environment destroyer and polluter

[russ_watters]

The first part is probably true, the second part is true if rephrased to be more factual and less emotional - the US produces more net pollution than anyone else.

The caveat to both, of course, is that the US is also the largest producer in the world.

[Janitor]

There are no train tracks near where I live, so on my once- or twice-a-year vacation trips, I always keep an eye out for trains. Major highways in the USA tend to parallel rail mainlines, often double-track. The majority of freight trains these days tend to be "stack trains" which consist of containers on flatcars. The containers are taken off of large ships on the coast, and I believe they usually go straight onto the trains, though I think they can also be put on wheeled frames and towed behind truck cabs as well--not sure about that. Typically a train will have many different shippers' names on the various containers. Ones I can remember offhand are Hanjin, Evergreen, and COSCO.

At any rate, I marvel at the huge quantities of goods that are in transit at any given time. I view it with a sort of pride, rather than with the shame that maybe others think it deserves.

[Moonbear]

There are no train tracks near where I live...

I hadn't realized just how many train tracks and trains are near where I live until friends of mine came to visit with their 2-year old son. We quickly realized that pointing to "choo-choos" kept him quiet in the car, and were amazed at how many we could find to point out to him. I never thought I'd be one of those crazy people who pulls over in a store parking lot just so the kid can sit and watch all the train cars of a passing train. I've noticed a LOT of cattle cars.

[Janitor]

I've noticed a LOT of cattle cars.

That's an interesting observation, because in the states I have been to in recent years, all in the west, I never see any livestock cars. I presumed they had become obsolete with the coming of cattle trucks.

I spent a night in the little Indian town of Kayenta near Monument Valley this summer. A cattle truck was parked in a dirt lot next to a fast food joint there while the driver got his food. The local homeless (?) dog was very interested in the stomping hooves and moo-ing sounds coming from the trailer. :cool: