And, critically, it was well known what the results would be when those policies were bought in. The West purposefully made a trade off to have a better environmental and social outcomes and worse economy.
> The West purposefully made a trade off to have a better environmental and social outcomes and worse economy.
How is people flying and driving better than using electric trains? Also in this case there is no "west", the US decided to keep people on the road an in the air, but in western europe we built extensive HSR networks exactly to reduce pollution (and create competition to short-distance airlines, but that's another story).
Unless the “west” doesn’t include Europe, this is incorrect. Europe has extensive train and metro systems.
Secondly, I’m not sure how driving combustion engine cars has better environmental outcomes than electrified trains. Even if the trains weren’t electrified, they’re still orders of magnitude more efficient than a car that generally has 1-2 people in it.
How is people flying and driving better than using electric trains? Also in this case there is no "west", the US decided to keep people on the road an in the air, but in western europe we built extensive HSR networks exactly to reduce pollution (and create competition to short-distance airlines, but that's another story).