This is a detailed study by Wade Anderson, who wished to highlight how Elon Musk & his brother Kimbal Musk have thought on climate change and how to embrace it.
Wade Anderson happen to be thoughtful on how significant the problem of global climate change was. For him, as a kid he grew up blissfully ignorant of the problems of the world until one day he saw a video clip from a 1988 “Global Survival Conference” held in Oxford, England.
James Lovelock (an English independent scientist, environmentalist, and futurist) expressed that we have to back off a bit by bit on what he alluded as the three deadly C’s – cars, cattle, and chainsaws. What his advice is “You don’t have to be a puritan and ban them, just use them moderately”. He was referring to destructive forces of combustible engines, the inefficient waste of natural resources in feeding the planet, and the devastation of the rainforests.
What Wade recollects is either Lovelock or Carl Sagan said that the rain forest was being cut down at the rate of 1 acre per second. Which really hit him, this makes us think that every second going by was another acre of rain forest lost! It takes 150 to 200 years for a rain forest to regenerate if it was replanted.
In such a living system species are expendable. If a species, such as humans, adversely affects the environment, then in time it will be eliminated – with no pity than is shown by the micro brain of an ICBM on course to its target. If the Earth is like this, then to survive we face the hard task of reintegrating creation, of learning again to be part of the Earth and not separate from it.
– James Lovelock
Why Wade thinks Tesla & Elon Musk have solution to Three Deadly 3’s?
Like many of us, Wade tried to bring in some change but the real change needs to come from the government, entrepreneurs & public figures. This made him study more about Tesla, what the company is doing. The more he learned about Elon Musk & Tesla the more he started to gain hope. He later Tweeted by sitting in his car of the Tesla by posting the photo of the logo with his statement: “To me this is a symbol of hope!”
Comparing back the the video of Global Survival Conference, he stated that the plant is a living organism and it’s not well. It doesn’t matter what country you love in or how wealthy you are. No one is safe, we need something that will make a real difference that gives us hope.
What brings in hope is knowing what Elon Musk & Kimble Musk are doing to provide a solution to those “three deadly C’s”
Electric cars are important,
– Elon Musk
solar energy is important,
stationary storage of energy is important
The first of Lovelock’s deadly 3’s – Cars:
We should accelerate the transition to sustainable energy and that is the reason why Tesla matters. According to their website, they have saved over 3,500,000 tons of CO2 with their Tesla vehicles. Though Tesla is working hard to bring electric vehicles mainstream, so that it’s affordable for everyone, but they alone can’t do this. The need for more automotive manufacturers making a serious commitment on this arena is necessary as Tesla alone can’t solve this issue of climate change. Even if we all have Tesla, we are still headed toward irreversible climate change.
Elon Musk has said, “the momentum toward sustainable energy is too slow”. With more than 1 billion passenger cars on the road all over the world, government should consider providing incentives that can make electric vehicles available to most of us.
Having said that, we would not be having this discussion about electric vehicles now if it wasn’t for Elon Musk & Tesla, Elon Musk is tackling one of the three deadly C’s with full force despite all of the constant attacks against him. He happens to work harder than any human possible, because he knows his cause and it is that important!
A couple more C’s to support endurance – Capture & Convert
While electric cars plays as a substitute for one fossil fuel, solar energy is a 100% clean alternative to dependence on another fossil fuel that is exceptionally impeding to our current circumstance and endurance – coal. In addition to Tesla’s electric cars, they have a solar division that also produces energy storage systems. Tesla has been on the cutting edge of this change and different ventures are beginning to take note.
Tesla has been on the cutting edge of this change and different ventures are beginning to take note. Since the vehicles have arrived at a base cost close enough for some more people, Tesla is focusing on driving solar prices down as well. Carl Sagan proposed solar energy as conceivable future fuel sources in 1988.
After 31 years, Tesla is currently creating affordable solar options. Their present objective is to get the cost under $2/watt which is fundamentally lower than any other competitor. With costs that low, there doesn’t appear to be a valid reason not to have solar.
“We’re really playing a crazy game with the atmosphere and the oceans. We are taking vast amounts of carbon out of the ground and putting this in the atmosphere. This is crazy and we should not do this, it is very dangerous.”
–Elon Musk
“Why run this crazy experiment where we take trillions of tons of carbon from underground and put it in the atmosphere and oceans, this is an insane experiment, this is the dumbest experiment in human history.”
–Elon Musk
“The more carbon we take out of the ground and add to the atmosphere, and a lot of it gets permeated into the oceans, the more dangerous it is.”
– Elon Musk
Also Read: Best portable solar panels for camping
The Second of Lovelock’s 3 C’s – Cattle
We all humans need to eat; food is certainly critical to our wellbeing and survival. In any case, what’s involved in producing that food and getting it to the people is where things happen that is against both our health and survival. Farmers generally depend on harmful chemicals and practice farming techniques that make the land less sustainable for cultivation. Whereas, transporting food over long distances greatly enlarges the carbon footprint involved in production.
The environmental footprint of raising livestock is agonizingly huge. One pound of beef requires over 50 pounds of grain and about 4,000 gallons of water. Consider how wasteful that is! Add to that: about 30% of our land surface is used for livestock farming and comprises 18% of ozone harming substances produces by humans.
“Livestock farming has a vast environmental footprint. It contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degeneration and deforestation. Nowhere is this impact more apparent than climate change – livestock farming contributes 18% of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This is more than all emissions from ships, planes, trucks, cars and all other transport put together.”
— Francis Vergunst and Julian Savulescu
Earlier mentioned, the estimated 1 acre per second of deforestations was stated in 1988 is presently at an alarming rate of 2 to 2.5 acres being lost per second. At this rate, it’s not evident that our grandchildren may get to see the world as the same way we do right now.
So, what is Tesla doing about this situation? Nothing, however, his brother Kimbal addresses the second “C” – Cattle as he has been operating restaurants called Next Door Eatery, which according their website:
While we like to positively affect our community, we don’t like to leave footprints, so that is the reason do all that we can to limit our effect on our neighborhood communities. Which is also a smart business.
- We are on our mission to be zero-waste. We’re almost there.
- We are proactively putting an end to using plastic straws, nationwide.
- Our extensive kegged wine program eliminates wine bottles, corks and shipping weight, saving tens of thousands of glass bottles a year.
- We use water- and energy-efficient dishwashers with a focus on earth friendly chemicals.
In addition to their statement, what they don’t mention is the impact they are having on reduces beef consumption. They have a 50/50 buger which is 50% crimini mushrooms and 50% beef. Addition to that being a 50% reduction for each burger eaten, they also provide the vegan “Impossible Burger” on their menu.
They work with local farmers to provide real food and not factory farmed food.
“Real food is the new internet means that young entrepreneurs getting into food today, where they’re bringing real food that just tastes much better. That’s food that you trust to nourish your body, trust to nourish the farmer, and trust to nourish the planet is the opportunity of our generation”.
– Kimbal Musk
The Third of Lovelock’s 3 C’s – Chainsaws
You obviously know that we rely on green plants for much of our oxygen, which is crucial to the biological life on this planet. The third C in Lovelock’s alliteration is chainsaws (deforestation, the destruction of green plants). To relate, Lovelock’s second C “Cattle” is again a big culprit. Beef is the most popular meat in the world, almost 20% of beef comes from Brazil.
Brazil is the place where the Earth has had the benefit of the rich supply of oxygen, the Amazon basin – that’s a BIG rainforest has given. Wade has spoken on how fast the rainforest is getting chopped down, 70% of the deforestations of the Amazon Basin can be ascribed to cattle farming. According to the USDA, over 2 million metric tons of beef has been shipped out of Brazil during 2017, with a 11% increase of the previous year. The world’s beef consumption is not going down, Someone’s got to do something!
Conclusion
Just as his brother Elon Musk is getting things done to make it easier for the world to wake up and respond to the need to shift away from fossil fuel consumption which leads to climate change, Kimbal too is operating for a change, with both cattle and chainsaws. And with the government of Brazil offering billions of dollars in loans to support the expansion of its beef industry, I’m hoping more and more people wake up and do something. Where does all this information take you? It moves me to take action. Which is a big reason that we need to address climate change – to help wake people up to do something so we don’t go off the cliff it looks like we’re heading towards.
What can you do? – do your own research to see what are the issues leading to climate change and do anything else that risks our survival or quality of air, water, or health; inform others of the situation we face (but do it in ways that empower rather than discourage); and take direct action, yourself, to reduce your carbon footprint, use less fossil fuels, eat less red meat, pressure our government and others to pass incentives that support rather than destroy the natural world we rely upon, and make sure every decision you make – of what to buy and what to do – has its own environmentally ethical footprint.
