Let’s look at a pie chart with 6 slices of different sizes. It is titled “Distribution of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Economic Sector in the United States in 2020.” The big three are transportation 27.3%, power 24.9% and industry 23.9%. Outstandingly, transport is the largest, accounting for more than a quarter of total carbon dioxide emissions.

Pie chart source is Environmental Protection Agency by Statista 2022.

The United States is making some progress in this transportation sector to reduce carbon emissions. Let’s take a look at California and what’s happening there.

Two of the state indicators are very impressive. With a population of 40 million, she is the fifth largest economy in the world. But beyond that, in August 2022, the governor announced that by 2035, all new vehicles sold in the state must be electric (EV) or plug-in hybrid (PHEV). No more petrol cars.

Also, by 2035, California will mandate that 35% of all new vehicles sold by 2026 must be EVs or PHEVs. It will rise to 68% by 2030.

This is big! This is historic! This is revolutionary!

But even as regulators and automakers try to curtail and ban sales of newer internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, the transition will not be easy. The Big Three of Detroit (Ford, GM, Chrysler-Stelantis) have already announced plans almost daily for developing new sources of raw materials, building their chains of supply and more. For example, one big difference is that an EV’s drive train has about 20 moving parts, while an ICE typically has about 2,000 moving parts.

Additionally, an EV car may have around 10,000 parts, while an ICE car has around 30,000 parts. Many states in the Midwest have new plants planned to make batteries, and new and modified assembly plants have also been announced. The overall effort to make this transition happen is enormous.

But it’s in progress.

Companies are now requiring new and different skill sets from their employees, and the workforce is changing. This whole process is what Tony Seba calls “chaos”.

The car illustration encapsulates part of the ICE problem.

The data (FuelEconomy.gov) and imagery (Karin Kirk) titled “Gasoline powered vehicle: …” are from Yale Climate Connections. The car and arrow show that “about 80% of the energy is lost (wasted) due to various inefficiencies.” “Only about 16-25% of the original (fossil fuel) energy is sent to the wheels” to propel the car forward.

And hopefully, this shift and reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will come in time to have a profound and positive impact on the planet’s ‘climate crisis’.

And this transition is never too early.

See photos of female scientists by Crispin Hughes. This scientist in a lab coat and sign says it very clearly. “Fossil fuels are suffocating humanity.” She can read a range of emotions from a woman’s face. Worry, worry, sympathy, etc. She is one of hundreds of scientists who have protested the climate impacts of fossil fuel use and the CO2 it emits into the atmosphere in recent weeks.

they are worried very.

And for good reason.

These are the scientists who collect, organize, aggregate and interpret the data. They understand the impact and are watching it unfold in real time. They write reports, they inform the public, they inform policy makers and politicians that action needs to be taken. But mostly what they’re looking at is baby steps and inertia. So many of them are taking the next step, civil disobedience, to get the climate crisis the attention it deserves from leaders and decision makers.

And the next part shows what they are so worried about.

Recent floods in Pakistan are unprecedented. With one-third of his land submerged, this gigantic country of 230 million people is suffering from a “disastrous monsoon season on steroids”. (Climate News; 2 September 2022, newsletter@e.independent.co.uk).

A photo by FIDA Hussain/AFP by Getty Images shows a man and a boy using a satellite dish to move seven young children across a flooded area in Balochistan province on August 26, 2022. increase. The impact and numbers are staggering. He killed more than 1,300 people, destroyed nearly a million homes, lost 700,000 livestock, and destroyed vast areas of crops.

A few months ago, Pakistan and India experienced the worst heatwaves on record. In the north of the country he has more than 7,000 glaciers that have experienced severe melting, followed by a series of heavy rains. Heat waves, melting glaciers and rainfall exacerbated flash flooding as the river rushed downhill during the summer.

Then, in late August, there was even more precipitation, almost triple the 30-year national average. The results have been devastating and have been blamed on climate change caused by the vast amounts of CO2 released into the atmosphere.

Jane Fonda, 84, perhaps demonstrates the courage and resilience needed during this time. A climate activist who was recently diagnosed with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy said last week, “Trust me, this will not interfere with my climate work.”

And so it goes.

Raymond N. Johnson, Ph.D.’s scientific career spanned 30 years in research and development as an organic/analytical chemist. He is currently the founder and director of the US Climate Institute (www.ICSUSA.org). Climate Science is published on the second Sunday of each month.