It also requires us to be involved in that region of the world in very costly ways that would not matter but for our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. We are now at the point where the next generation of Americans or the one immediately after the next generation will experience the complete depletion of the world's available oil reserves.
Even before the oil finally runs out, its price will increase so substantially because of the economic laws of supply and demand that it will bankrupt this country to remain dependent on foreign oil. Even now, our economy is already tied to oil in ways that are damaging to our welfare and some of the nations to whom we pay billions of dollars annually may actually support extremist Jihadist terrorists who are planning what they believe will be the destruction of the way of life in the United States and the Western World. Aside from ecological, geopolitical, and issues of human health, the principal reason that a shift to electric energy is absolutely essential is simply that, unlike fossil fuels, electric power is an entirely renewable source of energy (National academy of Engineering).
Unlike fossil fuel-burning vehicles, electric vehicles do not generate air pollution consisting of carbon monoxide and hundreds of other gaseous compounds that are harmful, even deadly, to human beings and other biological life. Carbon monoxide (CO), in particular, is a deadly poison that decrease oxygen transport to the tissues by attaching itself to hemoglobin in the blood and preventing it from absorbing oxygen (Schwela and Zail). Carbon monoxide is actually responsible for four distinct types of negative health consequences: (1) neurobehavioral...
While it is not yet comparable in efficiency to gas power, that is mainly because not enough resources have been devoted to its full development and technological implementation. Replacing gas-burning vehicles with electric vehicles will allow the environment to repair itself before the damage becomes too great to reverse through natural processes. Other benefits associated with the shift toward electric vehicles has to do with the comparative simplicity of electric motors. Whereas gasoline engines typically contain hundreds of moving parts, electric motors has as few as five. Once the technology is capable of providing comparable power that can be easily recharged at a network of recharging stations, electric vehicles will be more reliable and much less prone to mechanical breakdown than gasoline engines.
Conclusion
We are currently facing a tremendous crisis of global proportions, Man-made pollution is rapidly causing significant harm to the
global environment.
Global climate change has already caused significant ecological damage, erosion of the physical environment, and the
extinction of animal species. Thousands of human beings suffer unnecessarily and die every year because of man-made pollution. In addition, our dependence on foreign oil keeps us tied to Middle Eastern affairs and has the potential to destroy our economy. Eventually, natural oil reserves will run out entirely and that is likely to happen within the next century. A shift to electric vehicles will not be enough by itself to solve those problems but it is one essential part of the solution and the sooner we start the better off we will all be.
References
E & FN SPON (2009). Urban Traffic pollution. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from W.T. STURGES (2004). Pollution of the arctic Atmosphere
NATIONAL ACADEMY of
ENGINEERING (2002).Energy Futures and Urban Air
Pollution
The ELECTRIC VEHICLE and the BURDEN HISTORY. (1999).
