What if Everything Ran on Gasoline?

“What if Everything Ran on Gas” is a smart, thought-provoking ad for the Nissan Leaf.

I’ve often thought that one of the problems environmentalists face is that most automobile emissions are not visible and smelly enough. Maybe just a law that exhaust has to be dyed sooty would be enough to get us off petroleum. The commercial does this work well.

Quite apart from contributing to global climate change, which threatens our food supplies, automobile exhaust is not good for children and other living things. Scientists increasingly suspect it is implicated in our epidemic of autism.

Of course, driving an electric car only reduces carbon emissions to the extent that the electric plant that recharges its battery is powered by non-fossil fuels, such as hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, wave or solar. But in Portugal, where 45 percent of electricity is from renewable sources, driving a Leaf would be very environmentally friendly. Or in Iowa, where 17 percent of electricity is now from wind. And my friends in California with solar panels on their homes, who actually provide electricity to the grid, would be able to charge their Leafs with virtually no air pollution.

And, the batteries and range for electric vehicles will likely improve quickly.

For more on environmental issues see Michael Klare and Bill McKibben at Tomdispatch.