The Electricity Fairy

Andrea Widburg has an excellent post at the American Thinker on the ignorance of so many who constantly espouse climate alarmism and virtue signalling. Her post is entitled One-time journalist's Tesla rumination is ill-informed and remarkably funny.

Once, reporting was not considered a respectable profession, for newsmen were viewed as parasites. (Think: 1940’s His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.) Courageous reporting during WWII elevated newsmen’s standing. By the 1950s, “journalism” was a profession with “standards” of “objectivity.” Respected anchors spoke to Americans who naively believed that men like Walter Cronkite were informed, intelligent, and non-partisan. Today’s media have benefitted from those decades of goodwill, but a retired magazine editor’s recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, about his embarrassment over owning a Tesla, shows how far the American media have fallen.

At the L.A. Times, John Blumenthal, a “former magazine editor,” has written an unintentionally funny, ill-informed, politically-correct, ludicrously pretentious op-ed entitled “I bought a Tesla to help the environment. Now, I’m embarrassed to drive it.” It is the quintessential product of a modern media figure.

Go ahead and read the embedded article. I'll wait.

The funny part is not obvious until you begin actually thinking. What is he talking about "science deniers" when he admittedly failed algreba. He admits it took him several weeks to figure out the basics of his new Tesla. It is questionable that he knows anything about "science," which has nothing to do with citing "authorities." But then there is this:

The batteries in Teslas (and in all those electric cars greenies are demanding, sometimes by statutory fiat) are made under filthy and despicable circumstances. The necessary cobalt for batteries comes from primarily Chinese-owned mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where workers, often children, are virtual slaves, and the environmental pollution is staggering.

There’s also that whole electricity issue. Where in the world does an “educated” journalist like Blumenthal think electricity comes from? The Electricity Fairy? Zeus and his lightning bolts? Nooo. It comes from electric plants that usually burn either coal, oil, or natural gas, all of which are fossil fuels.

I love that "Electricity Fairy" (heh) but really, all electrical vehicles do is move the pollution from the tail pipe to the electrical power plant.  It takes the same amount of energy to move a vehicle down the road whether it is electric, hybrid, or gasoline powered.  Further, I suspect that the amount of fuel used is greater with EV than with gasoline powered car because of the losses that occur all along the chain form power plant to charging station.

Several days ago, our local news program had a 2 minute climate scare in which an "activist" speaking literally from her bedroom suggested that Duke energy instead of converting coal power plants to natural gas power should install batteries. Mrs. PolyKahr had to remind me that the television could not hear my shouting that batteries need something to charge them. Again, this "activist" seem to think electricity comes from the "Electricity Fairy." Go read Andrea Widburg's post. It would be nice if Leftists would leave us alone to make our own decisions about our transportation needs, our food needs, and so forth. But they won't.  Busybodies have to be constantly taking specs out of others eyes, while leaving the logs in their own.