Thoughts On The Emporer's New Electric Car

When a man called Matthew Wilson, who edits the car buyers ' Dog & Lemon Guide', said:

"The car industry is selling a false image of efficient, environmentally-friendly electric cars powered by 'green' energy. In reality, electric cars often aren't very efficient and aren't very green."

I stopped to think.

Many good points were made in the article Electric Cars Harm Environment but many were not......

1. The electric car is an enabling technology

The plug in paradigm has to YET to be generally accepted, this is crucial as it will break the link with big oil and oil based technology. Electricity is a utility as opposed to an "off the shelf" or "out of the pump" product, with the plug in paradigm the car becomes an appliance you can charge up at home.

Once electricity becomes the motive force oil will slip naturally into the background, governments and power companies will concentrate on clean electricity production in the power plants with huge gains in efficiency and economies of scale.

2. Oil - China and India Vs America

China's commitment to alternative energy and new infrastructure is beginning to be matched by India. There is a mammoth 3 GW solar project in India, it changes things just like the Chinese wind energy projects. It is one of many being scoped, planned and built now worldwide including solar power generation for Europe from the Sahara.

The USA has installed old fossil fuel capacity with a lot of coal and oil dollars invested in the ground. China and India have the option to bypass oil and coal and it looks like they are taking it where possible, they may have no choice. With peak oil upon us and coal smog damaging their citizens lives, they will have to find alternatives to the west's oil hegemony. America on the other hand is flogging the oil it controls literally to death. The Oil barons that control America want to see their profits come out of the ground before they morph into electricity suppliers.

Perspective: World Populations

China 1,336,540,000, India 1,178,647,000, USA 308,931,000, EU 501,259,840

China+India = 36.94%, USA = 4.54%, EU 7.5%

3. I am skeptical Of Skeptics who base their opinions on a static view of Technology

I had to smile when I saw this "It disturbs me to see politicians and business leaders on television promoting fantasy technology using fantasy economics."

All over the world there are stunning advances in the production, storage and transmission of electricty not least at MIT. please check out the amazing ideas and advances at this site "alternative-energy-news.info"

4. Stuff, money and capitalism

The sacred cow of American Commerce, making a buck into a million and then a billion without regard for nature will have to change. I am not sure we have to get rid of capitalism but if we don't recognise the limits of Mother natures indulgence and patience for 7 Billion humans then we are in trouble, big trouble.

The world we inhabit is not stable, regardless of any human activity, and is in a constant state of change. It is not a question of IF we will adapt it is a question of WHEN.

That the first faltering acceleration of electric car technology is happening at all in the face of vested Oil and Coal interests is a miracle. And we can smile and say we were here at the start of a watershed for mankind, the emporer's new electric car is indeed real and a vast improvement.

We will adapt; the only question is the ferocity and urgency of future events that will cause us to do so, and how many millions of our fellow human beings will fail, and be lost.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future