Edison Figured Out Climate Action 100 Years Ago
We need to price natural resources like the scarce commodity they are.
Thomas Edison with his first electric car, the Edison Baker. He’s holding one of the batteries used to power the vehicle.
Photographer: General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Firing up a cigar at lunch a century or so ago, just as the gasoline-burning car began its ascent to preeminence, Thomas Edison lamented the primitive aspects of lighting stuff on fire for energy:
Edison had some skin in the game, given Henry Ford’s Model T was running over the early market for electric vehicles. Still, his words have newfound relevance as we reckon with the deferred costs of modernization powered by fossil fuels. Like burning the fixtures, we are also using up the planet’s finite capacity to absorb emissions without catastrophic consequences.