Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, and Mexico

I support the people collectively owning the resources of a country and the people collectively owning the production and distribution of industries that have strategic importance. One of those resources is the non-renewable, climate destroying, fossil fuels.

We think of individuals being addicted to harmful substances, but as a species we are addicted to fossil fuels. As surely as harmful substances erode lives, families, and communities, fossil fuels are destroying these same things globally. Worse, our use of fossil fuels is condemning the babies of today and those not yet born to a planet that is increasingly inhospitable to human life. Much of Mexico would be uninhabitable in a world that is 2-3 Celsius degrees warmer than the pre-industrial period.

In the 1990s I converted my pickup to propane because it was less damaging than gasoline. In 2004 I bought the first viable hybrid car, the Prius. In 2019 we moved to one BEV (Tesla) and one PHEV (Volt) in Canada. We are selling the PHEV Volt and will rely on the BEV. I consider PHEV technology to be a necessary evil in some places. But being a necessary evil does not make it any less of an evil. I don’t know the statistics for Mexico, but in the US, the average lifespan of a car is over 12 years. On average, every PHEV sold locks into the climate changing petroleum industries for a decade or more.

Political will could revolutionize Mexico’s energy infrastructure. Just as petroleum is a resource that has strategic importance, renewable energy from solar, wind, and tidal resources can be used to achieve the goals of Morena, i.e., “With love for the people” and “Let's keep making history”. Creating a climate in Mexico that is inhospitable for the people would not be showing love for the people. Perpetuating fossil fuels would not be making history; it would be repeating the errors of the past.

Before I get off of my soapbox I will acknowledge being part of the problem. I have waited years to buy a BEV that I could use practically in Zihuatanejo. I am near the point of giving up. It would be impossible to get from Zihuatanejo to Morelia and beyond on Ruta 37D or to Manzanillo and beyond on Ruta 200. So I may have to participate in the “evil” of a PHEV. At least it is the lesser evil.

As an aside, I think that hydrogen for personal transportation is a non-starter. There are not sufficient reserves of hydrogen, so it must be produced. The effective way to produce it is to use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. That requires the production and distribution of sufficient electricity and decreases the efficiency of use of the electricity.

Then the pressurized hydrogen must be physically distributed to filling locations, again using energy and decreasing efficiency. Finally, the hydrogen must be catalyzed back into electricity (again losing efficiency) to power a vehicle. It is more efficient to use the electricity that is produced to charge battery cells and power the vehicle.