EVs Transform Auto Industry

Increasing instances of forest fires, heat waves, floods, hurricanes and melting glaciers are all symptoms of climate change resulting from greenhouse gases, with the biggest single source being gasoline-powered vehicles that produce more than a quarter of the country's total emissions.

The world's scientists warn that catastrophe is nigh and that we are close to a point where climate change will become irreversible. It's clearly time to stop debating with those who would ignore the facts and take action to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions immediately.

One way to begin reducing carbon dioxide levels is to increase the number of hybrid and all-electric vehicles in the marketplace as soon as possible. The new administration has set an ambitious goal for the transition to electric vehicles. By 2030, half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. should be electric.

It's been a long road to the development of electric vehicles. In the 1960s, Eugene Water & Electric Board received an electric vehicle, a Renault, as a demonstration project. By the 1990s, the utility was operating an electric Ford Ranger and two smaller vehicles called "Gizmos" (below).

Today, however, both hybrids and all-electric vehicles, such as the Tesla, are catching on as charging stations begin to proliferate in this country, allowing the vehicles to "refuel." A rapid shift from fossil fueled engines to electric vehicles will be an essential step in mitigating climate change.

Diminishing Season

Once upon a time, backcountry aficionados could anticipate summers of wandering the wilderness areas of the West in search of peace, solitude and perhaps a few photographs. No more. That was 20 years ago now, as climate change has led to perennial forest fire smoke obscuring the atmosphere.

This year, the Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon spotted by a USFS lookout on Calimus Butte, primed by months of drought and a record heat wave, has become the largest in the U.S. this season, burning over 400,000 acres of forests as a towering cloud of smoke reaches airliner heights.

Talk about apocalypse now. Heat waves are becoming more prevalent, and forests are incinerating everywhere, from California to Siberia. Summers that seemed unusually hot are becoming the norm. That alone is reason enough to to move quickly to reduce greenhouse gases now.

But there's so much more. Unprecedented floods in Europe, devastating monsoons in India, lethal "red tide" killing marine life off the coast of Florida, leaving dead fish reeking on beaches, and an iceberg nearly the size of Puerto Rico has broken off from Antarctica.

The situation is drastic; the greater our emissions of heat-trapping gases, the higher the temperatures and the greater the health risks. Last year was the warmest on record. The atmosphere is reacting to the weakening of the jet stream, causing increasingly uncharacteristic weather conditions.

Yes, it has been hot, and scientists expect if will get even hotter unless drastic action if taken to deal with greenhouse gases. How hot will depend on what is done to affect climate change. Meanwhile, backcountry adventures will be limited by forest fires, and Mother Nature is incensed.