Technology & Ideas
If All Vehicles Go Electric, That’s Just Step One
To address emissions, the electric grid would need to eliminate fossil fuels and the petrochemical industry would need to reverse its explosive growth.
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan
"Many of the headlines coming out of Detroit this week during the North American International Auto Show will be about electric vehicles – from new electric concept vehicles from Nissan and Infiniti to an emerging partnership between Ford and VW on electric and autonomous vehicles. By all means, environmentalists and others should celebrate progress in bringing more EVs to market. But they should not assume such progress absolves the world from working hard on other fronts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When I speak about energy, I find too many people in my audiences putting far too much hope in the lone measure of phasing out petro-powered cars.
There’s a particular psychological phenomenon at work here: All humans tend to focus on one or two solutions to incredibly complex problems.
Robert Jervis, a political science professor at Columbia University, writes about how the brain can account for only a limited number of factors in considering any particular phenomenon. As a result, each of us tends to fixate on a small number of facets, and to give priority to the ones we understand. . .
So it makes sense that so many people have a tendency to focus intensely on electric cars as the antidote to climate change. Unlike many other technologies that could prove significant – such as cleaner energy production from fusion, or carbon capture and storage to reduce existing greenhouse gas – even the nonscientists among us instantly grasp the idea of driving a car powered without oil. Moreover, the intuition is correct in many ways: In the U.S., as in many other countries, the transportation sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector. And over 90 percent of the fuel used in transportation is petroleum based. It therefore seems – and is – logical that if we can wean our own cars and trucks off of oil, our climate prospects will be dramatically improved.
_______________________________________________________________
About the author
Meghan L. O’Sullivan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.
She is a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She served on the National Security Council from 2004 to 2007. Read more opinion Follow @OSullivanMeghan on Twitter
There’s a particular psychological phenomenon at work here: All humans tend to focus on one or two solutions to incredibly complex problems.
Robert Jervis, a political science professor at Columbia University, writes about how the brain can account for only a limited number of factors in considering any particular phenomenon. As a result, each of us tends to fixate on a small number of facets, and to give priority to the ones we understand. . .
So it makes sense that so many people have a tendency to focus intensely on electric cars as the antidote to climate change. Unlike many other technologies that could prove significant – such as cleaner energy production from fusion, or carbon capture and storage to reduce existing greenhouse gas – even the nonscientists among us instantly grasp the idea of driving a car powered without oil. Moreover, the intuition is correct in many ways: In the U.S., as in many other countries, the transportation sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector. And over 90 percent of the fuel used in transportation is petroleum based. It therefore seems – and is – logical that if we can wean our own cars and trucks off of oil, our climate prospects will be dramatically improved.
There are, of course, some important details
READ MORE > https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019
LISTEN TO ARTICLE
6:37
___________________
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.net
Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.net
_______________________________________________________________
About the author
Meghan L. O’Sullivan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.
She is a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She served on the National Security Council from 2004 to 2007. Read more opinion Follow @OSullivanMeghan on Twitter
