Why Elon Musk is really revolutionizing the Automobile Industry? An amazing blog by tim urban who does a brilliant analysis on the state of affairs afflicting our planet. Below is a synopsis:
We get our energy from the Sun - and Plants are what absorbs the energy
Plants absorb and retain CO2 and release oxygen; by burning wood we release CO2 INTO EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE and generate energy
Coals, Natural Gas and Petroleum also called Fossil Fuels (generated by species that died and were buried in the swamps with their remains) is what we found in the underbelly of mother earth - which is a source of energy
The problem with burning fossil fuels is that it generates energy but releases CO2 emissions into the earth’s atmosphere and there might be a limited supply of it. Natural Gas is the lesser of the two evils
The two major categories which consumes energy in today’s world is electricity and transportation
The two major issues we are dealing with here is
a. A release of CO2 emissions has a significant impact on temperature - even a 1 degree of temperature increase will melt ice glaciers and cities will submerge under water
b. We may eventually run out of fossil fuels
Technological breakthroughs happen when there are five factors present -
Greed - To ACQUIRE MORE
Raging Ambition - A DRIVE FOR SUCCESS
Survival - of your existence
Accountability - reputation is at stake
Competition - to one up your competitors
Otherwise there are incremental improvements -and nobody is trying to breakthrough, but make changes to maintain status quo.
In order for a revolution to happen - we need breakthroughs and when there is a breakthrough - industries collapse and survival instinct kicks in - and industries are forced to adapt or perish
The biggest factor that causes a performance to go up or down is the environment we are in. Human beings adapt to our environment (We are the average of 5 people we hang out with).
Tobacco industry was in a status quo like situation making money and no accountability until special interest groups started causing an uproar about health risks, then they adopted the strategy of misinformation
Similarly coal, gas and oil industries including auto industries are scared of disruption and ARE looking to kill the EV vehicles
Elon Musk is the crusader who is beginning to cause the disruption for the greater good of humanity - by building battery charged vehicles
and that's why we need to invest and support electric vehicles