Enlight21

Author: Gladwyn d'Souza | Category: Business & Economy | Education | Environment & Nature | Health & Medicine | Politics National | Politics International | Society & Lifestyles | Travel | Date: 07-27-2022

• The short answer is no. Why was President Biden fist bumping dictators in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, and looking to open Alaska for Conoco Phillips to drill for oil?  Obviously, this was done to bring down the price of oil by building petroleum infrastructure that will last thirty years. These carbon bombs are needed, he said, to bring down the price of gas for Americans at the pump in cities like yours
• Will EVs shift that demand in the next 20 years- by 2040? The International Renewable Energy Agency projects 200 million passenger EVs by 2030, a small % of the 1.4 billion gas-powered cars on the road today. Gas-powered cars are expected to reach 2 billion units by 2040 according to the World Economic Forum at which time EVs will only be about a 1/5th to 1/4 of vehicles on the road according to Wood Mackenzie.
• We don’t have the time. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 6th assessment report says that our inability to restrict fossil fuels use makes 2.7 F (1.5 degrees Celsius) degrees of warming a certainty, and puts us on the path for 5.8 F (3 degrees C) by the 210, making wildfires, droughts, floods, and extreme heat exponentially worse.
• Looking at EVs as a prime solution means that we are not looking at other faster, fairer and less expensive options  such as slow streets, priced parking, and walkable cities. And somewhat more costly options like free public transit systems are not getting the investments they need. 
• Why is it that there is this tunnel vision focusing on getting more individuals into EV passenger cars?  It is obvious that big automakers want to sustain their stream of income, or their sales, at the expense of life of our planet and human lives. This emphasis on EV ownership on the part of individuals lessens the threat presented by calls to restrict passenger cars in favor of unprecedented investments in mass transit options such as buses and trains. Low cost options like safe roads for bike paths and more walkable cities within zoning options are also left out according to Sabrina Fernandes in Jacoby.
• Slow Green Streets and priced parking (both discourage driving), along with shared ebikes and shared EVs, can bring transportation emissions down rapidly according to the IPCC 6th assessment report (Chapter 5) as was shown by cities from Paris to Copenhagen and others during the pandemic. These already walkable cities are made more livable by reducing the need to own a vehicle. Other public policy goals may also be realized such as reducing the costs of affordable housing and improving public health.
• We need an overhaul of the transportation sector:  Public agencies must  treat Mobility As A Right rather than as a new way to turn a profit. This requires a public transit imperative that allows for sharing a limited fleet of electric passenger cars according to need & efficiency along with Slow Green Streets and priced parking within the transit corridor.
• Local areas like your city need to stop creating demand for fossil fuels with free parking and pedestrian killer roads like El Camino Real in Northern California and Broadway in New York City. They especially need to stop adding roads in the region such as the recent expansion of 101 in the SF Bay Area. They need to wisely utilize the already massive investment in transit by putting riders in car-free housing in the transit corridor, offering incentives to use mass transit, and making streets like El Camino Real transit and bike and pedestrian safe. Most importantly, they need to implement Slow Green Streets on the bicycle and pedestrian networks until temperatures stay below 1.5 degrees of warming. Only then can President Biden stop feeling compelled to be “friends” with dictators that are out to destroy life on earth, as they seek to perpetuate their draconian petro-facist oligarchies by pursuing profits at any cost.

About: Gladwyn d'Souza