climate change

The Politicization of Electric Vehicles

Fandango30 Comments

Have we become so politically polarized that there is nothing anymore that doesn’t become a political football?

A recent Gallup poll found that 61% of Democrats are open to buying an electric vehicle in the future, while 69% of Republicans say they would not buy an EV, ever. That huge disparity exists, according to Washington Post columnist Shannon Osaka, because GOP leaders, including Donald Trump, “have injected electric vehicles into the culture wars.” Just as they did getting vaccinated for Covid 19 and wearing face masks four years earlier.

“There is one thing holding the nation back from the dream of an all-electric future: political polarization,” said Shannon Osaka. Republicans are denouncing EVs as un-American and unmanly — a vehicle that only liberals would drive.

After the Biden administration announced its plan to encourage carmakers to increase electric car production and sales, Republican leaders began referring to EVs as “Biden-mobiles” and claimed that “Democrats are depriving Americans of their right to choose which cars they drive.”

These complaints arise from a “deep-seated psychological worldview” that’s hostile to change and new technology. As a result, EVs now sell mostly in Democratic areas. Cars have become “not just a way to get around but a form of personal expression, identity, and group membership.”

Unfortunately, once purchasing patterns become political, they become almost hardwired into the ideology. EVs versus gas-powered vehicles has become the latest political hot potato.

If Republicans persist, solely for political reasons, in their reluctance to embrace electric vehicles, the U.S. will find it exceedingly challenging to achieve its climate change targets. But Republicans seem compelled to protect the fossil fuel industry at all costs, even if the costs are those of the survival of the human race.

Bits and Pieces — April 15, 2023

Fandango16 Comments

Just a few bits and pieces that I thought I might share with you today.

Number 1 in the Nation

Mississippi Christians have erected a 14th giant cross. The latest cross — 120 feet high and 64 feet wide — towers over the town of Aberdeen, and cost $240,000 in private donations. Mike Rozier, whose company is putting up the massive crosses, says it’s money well spent, despite Mississippi’s very high poverty rate. “People say Mississippi ranks 49th or 50th of 50 states in various categoies,” Rozier says, but “we’re proud to say we’re number 1 in the number of crosses.”

The Check is in the Mail

Only 70 percent of mail intended to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service within three to five days arrived on time last year, an 11 percent drop from 2022. A $40 billion overhaul of the system ordered by the Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has caused widespread disruptions, and state and federal officials are voicing concerns about the possible impact on mail-in ballots in the 2024 presidential election.

A Lot of Work to Do

Atmospheric concentrations of the three most potent greenhouse gases rose to new record levels in 2023, highlighting the failure by world leaders and industry to curb carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emis-sions.

While the increases in each did not quite match the record jumps of recent years, the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and livestock farming have brought the world’s CO2 levels 50% higher than they were before the onset of the Industrial Revolution.

“As these numbers show, we still have a lot of work to do to make meaningful progress in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere,” said Vanda Grubisi, director of NOAA’s global monitoring laboratory.

Sunday Poser — What, Me Worry?

Fandango6 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

Are you worried about your future, personally, or about your country? What saddens or worries you about the future?

I’m not worried about my personal future because there’s simply not that much of it left. What will be will be, as they say. The only “concern” I have is which will go first, my mind or my body.

On the broader scale, however, I am very worried. I am worried that many, if not most, Republicans still support Donald Trump. He is the man who tried to overthrow an election by inciting a siege of the U.S. Capitol Building, and who has been charged with 91 felonies in four criminal cases this past year, has continued to tell The Big Lie, along with thousands of little ones, was twice impeached as president, and has literally pledged turn America into an autocracy. And Republicans have made it clear that despite Trump being considered the worst president in the history of the United States, he is their man. They don’t judge Trump, they love him.

If Trump doesn’t either get convicted and sent to jail or die between now and November 5th, I don’t see how he loses to Biden again. And then it’s all over but the shouting for democracy in America.

And on top of that, we are still doing little to address climate change. We are still in states of war for territorial gains, religious purposes, or both. Or to satisfy the egotistical, narcissistic needs of the men in charge. In the U.S. we are on the precipice of a civil war based upon political ideologies, racism, and nationalism.

Honestly, I think we are going to continue in this downward spiral until we either destroy one another and/or destroy the planet.

But it’s not for myself that I worry about these matter. I’ll likely be dead before all the shit hits the fan. But I feel bad for my young grandchildren. What kind of world will we leave them with?

MFFFC — The Change

Fandango17 Comments

People were finally starting to get used to the purple, constantly cloudy sky and the colder weather. It’s kind of funny how before all of this happened everyone was complaining about global warming and that the planet would become too hot to support human life. But now people were freezing to death and global warming was something most were praying for.

Scientists had been warning of dire consequences for humanity if global leaders didn’t take swift action to combat climate change. But most third-world countries couldn’t afford to invest in solutions to address the root causes of climate change. Leadership in wealthy first-world countries felt that continued investment in the military-industrial complexes and infrastructure in their respective countries was a higher priority than throwing money at what many politicians thought was a hoax.

In 2024 there was a candidate for President of the United States who said he had a surefire plan to stop climate change. He was vague about his plan during the campaign but promised that if elected only he could fix the problem and he would have it done within the first 100 days of his administration.

He did win the election and, as he promised, he announced his plan. Scientists around the world balked at his plan, but he said he knew more than the scientists. Military leaders called his plan insane, but he said he was smarter than his generals. Medical professionals predicted that more people would get sick and die as a result of his plan than would die if we did nothing to stem global warming, but he said these doctors were clueless liberal elitists.

So he implemented his plan to explode thousands of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere in order to create a radioactive cloud cover over the entire planet. This cloud cover would create a nuclear insulation blanket that would block out the Sun’s rays from reaching the surface of the planet, which would stem the tide of rising surface temperatures.

He was right about how his plan would stop global temperatures from rising. After exploding the nuclear devices into the atmosphere, it triggered what scientists called a nuclear winter. Others referred to it as the new ice age.

The planet went dark, skies were covered by thick purple clouds, temperatures dropped an average of 18°C, crops failed, billions died from radiation sickness, starvation, or freezing to death.

The survivors were finally getting used to the purple, constantly cloudy sky and the frigid weather. And to living mostly underground.

Written for Melissa’s Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Image credit: Ilyuza Mingazova on Unsplash.

MLMM Friday Faithfuls — Planet Earth

Fandango6 Comments

For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim is asking us to write anything about how old the planet Earth is.

Astro physicists set the age of the planet Earth at about 4.5 billion years. Some religious and biblical “scholars” claim that the planet is between 6,000 and 10,000 years old. It makes for very interesting and sometimes heated debates.

But from my personal perspective, how old the planet Earth is has little bearing on our lives. On the other hand, how much longer the planet will be able to sustain human life is a much greater concern for me, especially when I think about my grandchildren.

So I think we should stop looking backward and arguing about how old the planet Earth is, and start looking forward to come up with workable solutions for saving the planet Earth in order that human life can continue to exist on it.