Sorry for butting in this late - and I won't even touch the climate change debate, but it is a fact that we will be driving very different vehicles in the very near future. I have actually been in the first EV version of the Toyota in England quite a few years ago - I do not remember it ever being re-charged -- the electrics recharged automatically when stopping and re-starting whilst waiting for traffic lights, slowing down, in fact every time he brake was depressed; my daughter and husband had a second Toyota after that - again - we also drove longish distances to their holiday home which is a good 2 1/2 hours drive away - no re-charging necessary - the only negatives then: it was very silent and also a bit ungainly to look at. But they have become better-looking and I suspect they are here to stay. However, where does electricity come from? we won't get away from the greenhouse gas issue anytime soon and I have friends who subscribe to your view, Mogga, that the earth is going through a natural warming cycle. I do not have the expert knowledge to argue for or against, but it stands to reason that when one species becomes dominant and above else has huge energy needs (and more emerging in Asia) - that there is some sort of impact which can only end in disaster. When you talk about the indoctrination of grand children etc. yess, it is necessary to raise all our consciousness about the impact we as the single most resources-hungry species are having not necessarily on climate but on the planet as a whole, on other species, on space to grow food, on grazing land, on water resources etc. etc. The climate issue is an offshoot of that, or rather a compounding factor to the present or still emerging difficulties (that's putting it mildly) or the inventiveness needed to overcome such difficulties - and I haven't even started on the rubbish we are so happily spreading everywhere, killing ocean critters, land critters, poisoning our good Mother Earth.
For this youngest generation it has become one issue and I am happy to go along, as the science for the other is being hi-jacked by various interest groups who do not have mine or your interest at heart, because their rich and wealthy owners can bugger off to serene islands of wealth and privilege as soon as living amongst the plebs becomes too yukky.
It's this young generation which will have to face a world so very different from your or my experience and especially different from just 2 generations removed into the past, that we cannot even imagine it, or, worse, if the facts stare us in the face, we refuse to acknowledge what we are seeing and 'interpret' it differently - we interpret it as it suits us or the different agenda groups who influence us. We still have the luxury of living in a relatively safe world - as we experience here in Australia.
As for EV transport - I see it as still using energy resources, but what will happen in my view - at least in energy-hungry cities - people will simply use public transport, which is already in many places very efficient. The character of our housing needs has a lot to do with our dilemma, insofar that we insist on living 'on-the-ground' in our single flat apartment buildings which cover the landscape like a vast spider-net, instead of going up or at least in step-like progression as many of the coastal cities in Mediterranean cities are build - this needs to change for an efficient transport system to work - and it will. IMO Taurisk
