Since the US Canadian border is not covered in ice sheet obviously we are in a phase of global warming. I am aware that the ice had melted before we started drilling oil wells.
I for one do not get the connection between global warming and EVS as a solution to the problem.
Science tells me that my gas vehicle has efficiency of 20 30% and my EV has efficiency of 80%. That's what drives me to EVS instead of ice vehicles when feasible but we're far far from EVS proficient at meeting all transportation needs in total today.
Dino juice fossil fuel crude oil whatever you want to call it will run out some day and I'd like to make that last as long as we can for lubrication roads etc.
The coming hundred dollar Plus oil prices will cease this needless debate over climate change because we'll do it for economical reasons only.
We need a lot more than conversion to EVs. The nice thing about electricity is that generation does not require fuel. Solar, wind, and geothermal can meet our future energy needs. Hydro is pretty much maxed out, and the damage dams did to fisheries was not considered when we built them. Nuclear in America is still the victim of 1960s technology, which was messy and unsafe. America is stuck in a hole, but other countries, mostly in Asia, are building out 21st century reactors. China and India are leading the world in nuclear technology.
There were 59 new nuclear reactors under construction in the world in 2024, of which the majority were located in China.
www.statista.com
Our cheapest source of electricity is solar, but storage is a problem. Repurposed EV batteries or dedicated batteries could be a partial solution, but manufacturing and installing that much storage will take years.
Global warming does not happen in a vacuum.
The sun may be moving into a Grand Solar Minimum, which would cause global cooling under normal circumstances. Balancing that is the projection that if we continue to litter our atmosphere with CO2, it will be 3x historical norm by the end of this century. Let's hear it for predictions, which are almost always wrong. If the sun doesn't cool off, we're screwed. If the sun does cool off, the next century is screwed. If our industrial civilization collapses, all bets are off the table.
Maintaining an industrial civilization during an era of global development is going to require some serious inventiveness. The Chinese are developing solar, nuclear, and hydrogen fusion. America is putting up windmills and fracking. China is way ahead of the US and Europe in EV deployment. Maybe we can steal their technology?
