Ukraine war may have done more than Greta Thunberg

They say “all politics is local.” Sometimes, it is true even for international politics. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a strong manifestation of that. While most Americans cannot find Ukraine on a map, the fact is that the war over there and the resulting ban of the Russian oil products by President Biden is hitting the American people right where it hurts. The oil prices are touching mind boggling heights.

There are times when a crisis brings forth opportunities. For example, when 9/11 happened, the accusing finger was raised at the Muslims around the world. Nevertheless, more people around the world started to gain knowledge about Islam, resulting in more and more people converting to Islam.

Similarly, when Covid-19 hit the globe, while the market for the conspiracy theories was hot, the spread of realisation and awareness regarding the lethality of pathogens also became general knowledge. Many people died but many people did not even get the flu and cold they usually used to get every winter and every summer because they wore masks.

The Russian invasion may also be one such boon for climate action. Due to the insanely high gasoline prices, people in America are talking about shifting to electric vehicles. Many are actually eagerly awaiting their arrival. Even those traditional Cowboy Trump supporters, while blaming Biden for the crisis, are also sounding quite willing to let go of their signature Chevy trucks and get into some kind of electric ones as soon as possible.

This is an opportunity that a crisis thousands of miles away has presented. The government and the private sector need to take steps on a war footing to make the electric vehicles cheaper and available to the public. The mass urge is there and making a case to bring in electric cars through some sort of legislation would be easy to sell to the American people. Apparently, people respond better to the problems of today than the threats to their survival decades later. The gasoline prices are hitting their wallets today compared to the loss of homesteads due to rising sea level, super floods or wildfires years later. This urgent need is in urgent need of attention for the benefits that won’t be felt urgently.

And the natural next step for both public and private sectors is to work on generating solar and other forms of clean energy. Because while a mass shift to vehicles that do not combust oil is great enough, it surely is not all that is needed to address the threat of climate change. The current electricity is generated using the same fossil fuel, which results in massive carbon emissions. Decarbonising the electric grid would put us on a path to preserve this only spaceship human civilisation has got to maneuver through space and time.

For carbon emissions to become expensive for people is convincing them to abandon oil addiction and move to a cheaper alternative. Even if the motivation is financial, the government must seize this opportunity in making clean energy cheaper than dirty electricity. Making carbon emissions expensive for the people may not be easy but the most daunting task the government faces is making carbon emissions expensive for the greedy corporations by imposing carbon tax. While there is a war being waged in America by both domestic and international players to undo any actions against the use of fossil fuel, the Ukraine war may have done what the most aggressive activism against the use of fossil fuel may not have so far: convincing people to switch to electric cars urgently.

Let me invoke 9/11 again. The American people right after those terrorist attacks wanted revenge. The governmental machinery moved with lightning speed to get the legislation done using mass support, even though the goal really was the execution of a global hegemonic agenda. Today, we need the government to use people’s demand for electric cars to wage a war against climate change.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2022.

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