The verdict is clear among the environmentalists: electric is the way to do energy. Integrity demands following the science.
I am not saying I like it. Using fossil fuels is incredibly convenient. It’s easy to see how it became the foundation for our entire global civilization.
It has allowed the west and the northern hemisphere to dominate the earth. It has let us go faster and farther than any humans in history. It brought more food and divorced us from the land.
It was the basis for the digital age, from mainframes to AI.
It’s most ubiquitous product, the combustion engine vehicles and the freeways that carry them, have reshaped what it means to be a functioning person along with all of our relationships with each other and our environment.
And yet the whole time there was a hidden fatal flaw. Petroleum kills. It kills the biosphere and the natural systems upon which all life depends.
We didn’t know it at first. But by the 1970s it was clear. And it was ignored, or worse, actively suppressed.
We must now pay the piper. But the liars are still lying. And have greater power than ever before.
Nobody wants to give up cheap easy energy. Nobody in the rich world wants to change. And the poor countries that are just being “developed” feel cheated. The party is over and they never got to go at all.
This is why I am choosing to go electric. Because it is something I can do to make my carbon footprint smaller.
I already did not reproduce. I already eat consciously. I already drive less. But what I am after is divestment from fossil fuel use. And, as much is even possible, of plastic use.
This is personal to me. In 1929 my grandfather went into the oil business in Louisiana. He was successful, and the fruits of that endeavor made my life soft. It was what supported me from the cradle to this very day. I know it isn’t my fault but I still feel the guilt.
And, in this one instance, I can do something about it. Go electric.
This would mean cooking, temperature regulation, and transportation.
Yes, there are issues. Many faced with this part of the inconvenient truth are afraid of power outages and grid failure. I have similar concerns. But I can go solar. I can have a biofuel backup generator. I can pressure the power company to go green.
We are reaching the tail end of any kind of feasibility for petroleum production. Yes, the grid may be vulnerable, but it is just as likely that the sane notion that the rest of it should stay in the ground may prevail.
And even if it doesn’t, it is always time, on the personal level, to do the right thing.
Good for you! We replaced all the natural gas stuff in our house, including propane, with electric when we moved in back in 2018. I was taught to cook on a gas stove, so that one was harder to put in the past, but now that I understand the dangers from gas cooking, I'm fine with electric (pretty easy to adapt once you know the rules).
Congrats!