If you've been on an Amtrak train lately with crappy snacks, non-working power outlets, and faulty wifi, you might not agree with the claim that "American passenger rail is in the midst of a renaissance." But that's the word from the folks at the Brookings Institution, which has released a new report detailing how Amtrak is "well-positioned for the future" after seeing massive growth over the last 15 years. Growth in ridership, that is, not in service.

"Ridership grew by 55 percent since 1997 and is now at record levels, with over 31 million travelers annually," according to Brookings. "That's faster than other travel modes like aviation and far outpaces the growth in population and economic output during that time." The study also found that 100 of the country's biggest metro areas are responsible for almost 90 percent of Amtrak's ridership, with 10 of those making up almost two-thirds of it.

Brookings has a sweet interactive map with data about Amtrak routes nationwide, with a focus on some of those most train-crazy big cities, and a look at which are the cheapest and most expensive rides in terms of operating costs. Here's a static version:

Compare, though, Brookings' map to this map showing how much the U.S. passenger rail network has shrunk since 1962, and that "renaissance" looks a little less golden.

The West has long turned a collective blind eye to China's human rights abuses, its disregard for democracy, its complicity in the mistreatment of its low-wage workers, its occupation of Tibet, and its environmental sins. By turning that blind eye, we've ensured a cheap and steady flow of everything from McDonald's Happy Meal toys to iPhones and other toxic consumer goods.

But something remarkable has been happening of late: China's despotic leaders seem to be working to clean up the country's environmental practices.

How much should a nuclear power plant operator spend to prevent radiation from spewing into the air during an accident, à la Fukushima and Chernobyl?

The answer, according to staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is $20 million per reactor. That's the price tag for a filter that could be fitted to a reactor's vent to capture radiation during an accident.

Starship Troopers is one of my favorite films, so I just couldn't help but warm to this sort of rough-trade, clacking, kind of crude robot who is the total doppelgänger of the film's "bad guys." This robot, nicknamed BigDog, could already run four miles per hour and carry over 300 pounds, but its creators at Boston Dynamics (some dudes from MIT) apparently decided it was time for it to learn a useful trade. And that trade is throwing cinderblocks. Watch it do so below.

Environmentalists lined up over the weekend to condemn a draft State Department report that found no compelling environmental reason not to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

The stretch of pipeline in question would bring tar-sands oil from Alberta, Canada, across the U.S. border and down through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The southern stretch of the pipeline, which will carry the oil to Gulf Coast refineries, is already more than halfway built.

The draft environmental impact statement concluded [PDF] that the proposed project would damage more than 100 acres of wetlands, increase temperatures in wildlife-rich streams, and threaten vulnerable species. If there are spills from the pipeline, they could dump oil into lakes, aquifers, and rivers.

The project would also lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, but the department determined that if the pipeline is not built, that could trigger more global warming because the industry might then ship its oil via less efficient methods like rail and oil tanker. That claim drew widespread condemnation from activists and scientists.

I'm not sure how Grist List ended up on the "goats yelling like humans" beat, but ... OK now that I put it that way, it seems pretty self-explanatory. Anyway, those yelling goats are just not going to stop until they've conquered YouTube, so here's a second screaming-goat supercut to fulfill your laughing-until-you-die requirements.

"I don't see what all those environmentalists are worried about," sneers your great uncle Joe. "Carbon dioxide is harmless, and great for plants!"

OK. Take a deep breath. If you're not careful, comments like this can result in dinner-table screaming matches. Luckily, we have a secret weapon: A flowchart that will help you calmly slay even the most outlandish and annoying of climate-denying arguments:

Last month was Carnival time in Rio. Which means lots of partying and lots of sexy women wearing very little and also lots of drinking and peeing. Is the pee thing a buzzkill? Well sorry. You can't just make people stop peeing. Especially drunk people. Luckily there is a samba-lution to all of this: portable toilets that can actually use pee to power sound systems used for the event.

On Monday, President Obama nominated Gina McCarthy to replace outgoing Environmental Protection Agency Chief Lisa Jackson.

Widely known as Obama’s “green quarterback,” McCarthy has helped shape landmark mercury and air toxics standards, along with greenhouse gas regulations, as the current head of the Office of Air and Radiation. In addition to serving at the EPA, she also worked under two Republican governors, including Mitt Romney. McCarthy helped implement strict standards slashing carbon and mercury pollution from the state’s “filthy five” coal-fired power plants when she served in Massachusetts.

Over her two-decade career, McCarthy has drawn unusual praise from Republican and energy-industry admirers -- a tough feat at an agency that is often the polluters and their allies’ favorite target.

If you want to get rid of a building, you're pretty much stuck blowing it up. It's not ideal, especially in a city where there are other structures around that could be damaged, but buildings are large, and designed to be permanent, and it's not like you can convince them to just shrink down to nothingness -- can you?

Well, a Japanese construction company is doing a pretty good job with this hotel. Instead of using explosives -- dangerous in a densely populated area -- it's taking apart each floor from the inside, then sliding the building's cap down a level, then repeating until the whole thing is gone.