>“We now have the technology to stop doing it, to stop warming the climate mostly,” Dessler says. “The other thing that matters is the reason we’re not doing it is because of the politics, and because of how immensely powerful fossil fuels are as a special interest.”
This is one of those statements that seems hopelessly optimistic, almost to the point of being disingenuous. Ignore all of the other things oil is used for and just focus on passenger vehicles. An estimate from last year put the number of ICE vehicles on the road at 1.2 billion compared to 27 million EVs.
Do we have the technology to get all of those ICE vehicles off the road? Yes. Do we have the technology *and* the capability of getting rid of the ICE vehicles and replacing them with EVs in a short time frame to eliminate our dependence on oil? No. Around 90 million cars were manufactured in the world in 2023, so it would take more than a decade even if vehicle manufacturers switched their facilities to 100% EV production.
Yes, public transportation is a much better option, but we also don’t have the capability of replacing 1.2 billion vehicles with electrified public transportation either. The technology? Yes.
Added to that is the fact that, even with people demanding climate action more and more, they’re still rushing out in record numbers to buy the worst of the worst when it comes to passenger vehicles.
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>“We now have the technology to stop doing it, to stop warming the climate mostly,” Dessler says. “The other thing that matters is the reason we’re not doing it is because of the politics, and because of how immensely powerful fossil fuels are as a special interest.”
This is one of those statements that seems hopelessly optimistic, almost to the point of being disingenuous. Ignore all of the other things oil is used for and just focus on passenger vehicles. An estimate from last year put the number of ICE vehicles on the road at 1.2 billion compared to 27 million EVs.
Do we have the technology to get all of those ICE vehicles off the road? Yes. Do we have the technology *and* the capability of getting rid of the ICE vehicles and replacing them with EVs in a short time frame to eliminate our dependence on oil? No. Around 90 million cars were manufactured in the world in 2023, so it would take more than a decade even if vehicle manufacturers switched their facilities to 100% EV production.
Yes, public transportation is a much better option, but we also don’t have the capability of replacing 1.2 billion vehicles with electrified public transportation either. The technology? Yes.
Added to that is the fact that, even with people demanding climate action more and more, they’re still rushing out in record numbers to buy the worst of the worst when it comes to passenger vehicles.
[https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/28/global-sales-of-polluting-suvs-hit-record-high-in-2023-data-shows](https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/28/global-sales-of-polluting-suvs-hit-record-high-in-2023-data-shows)
It’s all a lot worse than it should be… and this is just the start of the climate crisis.