Nowadays it seems like there are a lot of politicians and political powers around the world who are advertising an all-electric system in order to reduce carbon emissions. They make it sound like a complete transfer to electricity will be smooth and make every city clean with zero emissions. However, this could not be farther from the truth. An all electric switch will take a long time and will possibly hurt our environment even more. An all electric switch would mean that all things we use would be powered by electricity from cars to other equipment used by companies. It would all be legally required to be powered by electricity.

Electric production with fossil fuels is very wasteful but not when it’s being used it is more wasteful when being produced. More than 60% of the energy used when generating electricity is lost in the conversion process. Most processes for creating electricity

require other natural resources such as coal. If we are using up all these other resources but losing 60% of it by the time it is delivered, is it really worth it? Not to mention, the weather affects how electricity is produced and delivered. During times of heavy storms and other more intense weather electricity seems to go out and the grid often gets damaged. Take ,for example, after a hurricane where many towers fall down and many places get flooded. The homes and businesses are heavily affected and can sometimes not get electricity for weeks or even months.

In some of the most electric cities the power comes from coal and other fossil fuels. This part of the equation is not seen when in the cities but close by there are coal plants that are fueling the large amount of electricity they need. If everything we have is switched to electric power it would drastically increase the amount of electricity that needs to be produced. This would require more coal and other fossil fuels to be burned which would most likely raise our emissions.

If all vehicles were to be powered by electricity then one small thing would shut everything down. Electricity is not reliable meaning that one small problem in the grid can affect everything connected to it. For example, during a storm a power line falls down which takes away power from everyone in the area. If everything was electric people would be stuck where they are. Especially when looking at all the emergency vehicles. Recently in my area there was a hurricane which required tons of vehicles in order to clean up debris. There were also many power outages. That’s where fuel powered vehicles are better. When the power grid is broken these petrol powered vehicles can still function and make a huge difference when it comes to clean up and recovery.

Electricity does not meet the needs of all people and all places. All over the world people live very different lives which require different needs. Some people would be fine living with everything being electric since the area where they live does not require them to drive far or to use lots of fuel to power equipment. However, people in rural areas tend to get less electricity and they require lots of fuel already in order to power their tools. When you look at farming equipment and the needs they have it

becomes clear that electric farm equipment would not make sense. This equipment has to run for many hours a day and farmers don’t have time to wait for their tractor to charge up. The same goes for the trucking industry where the trucks need to drive long distances. The range of electric batteries just do not meet the needs that rural and industrial companies have.

People who support an all electric world often use cars as an argument by saying that electric cars don’t have exhaust fumes which obviously means that they are cleaner and the best solution to our environment’s problems. However, the truth of the matter is that the production of electricity emits tons of emissions which could outweigh our current pollution if the world went full electric.

In my opinion, an all electric world would not be practical. Electric power is not advanced enough to power everything. Not to mention, the production of electricity is very wasteful and can be more harmful to our environment. Electricity is also unreliable which could cause major problems once things break. I’m not saying that it can’t be done but it makes more sense for fuel and electricity to coexist in our world.