Yet his comment addresses the elephant in the room. We can switch fuel sources and/or do a myriad of other “feel good” attempts but nobody will admit the real cause; a growing population is putting more and more strain on finite resources.
Another stress point is the steady, albeit slow, development of the third world countries, which is also where most of the population growth is happening. They want things like electric lights and regular meals, while profiteers use up their fresh water and mineral resources. It looks like we will have to find food, shelter, and water for another 2 billion people in the next 30 years.
I see the coming train wreck as the real problem. Market capitalism is a metastable system, with a long history of destroying and reconstructing itself. There are solutions out there, but many do not promise to be profitable. Some of our problems, like the copper shortage, have mostly been resolved by miniaturization and recycling. Our energy problems have clear solutions that are only obstructed by politics. Other problems have a hard barrier, like the food supply. Brazil is converting a million acres of the Amazon to farm land a year. In 30 years, there won't be any Amazon left to convert.
The world will be faced with financial and social unrest. What are the politics of hundreds of millions of people starving to death in a single year? All it would take is Mother Nature to roll snake eyes on world food production, and we would be there now. In 30 years, it will be many times worse. Some idiot will probably start a war. What happens when navies start sinking shipping to their military opponents? The US has lost its manufacturing base. Imagine a world without all those container ships stacked up in our ports. Converting our transportation base to EVs would be really tough with our economy in shambles.
All we can do is deal with current conditions, even though we see immense problems in front of us. EV or ICE will be a choice for at least 15 years. If you plan on living longer than that, buy a bicycle.
