Climate news is rarely good. Here is something to feel good about.
NY Times
California is expected to put into effect on Thursday its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a groundbreaking move that could have major effects on the effort to fight climate change and accelerate a global transition toward electric vehicles.
“This is huge,” said Margo Oge, an electric vehicles expert who headed the Environmental Protection Agency’s transportation emissions program under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “California will now be the only government in the world that mandates zero-emission vehicles. It is unique.”
The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, will require that 100 percent of all new cars sold in the state by 2035 be free of the fossil fuel emissions chiefly responsible for warming the planet, up from 12 percent today.
Yes, cars are not going to solve the climate crisis; they are part of the problem, not the solution. But for the world's 5th-largest economy to ban the sale of fossil fuel burners will have a huge impact.
These things must be viewed through a lens of impact on the long-range goals. The impact of this ruling will be immense.
Thank you, California, for taking the lead on the greatest crisis in human history!
Let us hope such measures aren't too little, too late.