I was very innocently visiting a website, Vox.com, to read about the “car crash epidemic” that appears to maybe be connected, somehow, with the COVID pandemic, although the article didn’t actually mention the added dangers of driving while wearing a mask.
Apparently, the number of miles driven by Americans — the folks who handle most of the driving for the rest of the world — the number of miles was down by 13 percent during 2020, but the number of fatalities was up by 8%. Not good news.
And so far, 2021 looks like it might be even worse.
In September 2020, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030” with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. Americans don’t seem to be doing their part. Or maybe it was a silly proclamation to make in the first place.
But the part that had me scared was the advertising banner that appeared at the top of the Vox.com webpage.
Apparently, online retailer Amazon is embracing the Paris Climate Accords goal of reducing carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050… and part of Amazon’s plan is to purchase 100,000 electric delivery vans.
I did an online search to find this picture of Amazon founder, billionaire Jeff Bezos. The vehicle shown behind him is not one of the new all-electric delivery vans, as far as I can tell.
(Don’t bother clicking the “play” icon. This is just an image, not a video.)
Amazon has been criticized for increased carbon emissions resulting from its emphasis on faster and faster shipping. Apparently, there’s a tradeoff between delivery speed and carbon dioxide emissions. Who knew? But the tradeoff would presumably be different, if all the Amazon delivery vehicles were electric.
Call me a coward, but I live in fear of Mr. Bezos and his electric vehicles.
I also fear his spaceships, but for different reasons.
The main problem with millions of electrical vehicles running all over the country is that they are electrical. Which means, you have to plug them in.
I’m sure Daily Post readers have had the experience of plugging too many appliances into the same circuit? The result is not pretty. Nor is it pretty to be wandering around in a damp basement, trying to locate the breaker box.
It’s a scientific fact (if there is, indeed, such a thing) that too many appliances plugged into an electrical system will flip the breaker.
This suggests to me, that somewhere in America, there’s a big breaker box just waiting to be flipped when all these fancy electric vans and cars arrive back in their respective garages at the end of the day, and plug in to the grid all at the same time.
Does anyone imagine that’s not going to be a huge big problem?
And there goes my phone… and there goes my computer… and my microwave. And the washing machine, and the refrigerator, and even the doorbell.
For what? So Mr. Bezos can think he’s saving the world.
I will gladly exchange a little excess carbon dioxide in the air, for a working doorbell.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.