Why bother?

That thought crossed my mind today as I read about the heat wave hitting Spain this weekend. And another report about drought in France and what it means for crop yields. And one about the record heat in India and what it is doing to that country’s wheat production. And another about the “historic heat wave” hitting dozens of U.S. states this weekend. And yet another about the global food crisis setting in, caused both by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and climate change.

I’ve been looking into buying an electric vehicle as gas prices rise to more than $2 a litre here. They are not easy to find. Carmakers are facing a global computer chip shortage. So, one has to order a vehicle and wait up to a year and a half for delivery.

It occurred to me today that there might not be an electrical grid left when I finally take delivery of my vehicle. Extreme heat and associated weather events could knock it out of commission, perhaps permanently.

I’ve seen the power grid go down for a week or more at a time in my neck of the woods several times over the years after big wind storms. And during the 1998 ice storm in Quebec, huge hydro transmission towers crumpled like papier mâché, knocking out power to parts of the province for weeks, and months in some cases in the dead of winter.

Whether you believe extreme weather events are caused by climate change or weather manipulation by military officials in various countries or are just some sort of fluke, it’s happening. We can see the results.

So, bringing it back to my search for a new vehicle, an EV won’t be a smart purchase if there is no electrical grid to charge its battery.

Climate change — or whatever is behind the extreme weather events — could immobilize a lot of people around the world. Maybe everyone. We may be on the verge of returning to the Stone Age, when we won’t even be able to count on horses or donkeys to pull chariots.

I have little doubt that billions of people and animals are going to be wiped out by extreme weather events, famine and disease over the next decade. And it has all been brought on by a small group of people’s greed and contempt for the planet. They’ve made a lot of money and lived high on the hog. But their time at the trough is almost over. Money may soon have no value.

Meanwhile, though, I am stunned by the numbers of people who carry on as if everything is OK. Maybe that’s a good thing, though. Mass panic and anger will eventually set in. It will get very ugly — and we’re not talking about 20 or 30 years into the future. It is a much shorter time frame now, as witnessed by what is happening in Europe and the U.S. this weekend.

So, perhaps the only thing to do now is to “eat, drink and be merry.” We cannot stop the climate armageddon that is unfolding, no matter what we do.

So, is buying an EV a smart purchase these days?

I wish I could be optimistic.

Click, click . . .

— Jillian