First-World Problems...

I was away last week and decided to get in a little hunting. This was right off the highway and seemed tailor-made for a pleasant and easy hunt. Luckily I had just gotten my old deer rifle out of mothballs and was pleased to discover that aside from the scope needing some readjustment it shot as well as it ever did. And since it was a 30-06 I could opt for a big and heavy bullet (220 grains seemed appropriate).

I was all set...I had a solid rear rest (thanks to Weasel's excellent advice), the target (a nice 3,000 pound bull) was stationary, and if I did my part all would be well! And at 50 yards, it would be an easy shot!

Until I realized something! My rental car couldn't carry the damned thing! I figure that the elephant seal would run at least 1,500 pounds of meat and probably 100 pounds of fur, and my Chevy Malibu was simply incapable of carrying that much weight!

Talk about First World Problems!

But the real point of this post is that Chevy Malibu got 30 mpg with a combination of highway (and I always...ALWAYS exceed the posted limit) and hilly coastal driving.

And that is amazing. Think back to the same model car of 50 years ago. it got less than half the mpg, it handled worse, and it was less comfortable, reliable, and safe. It's only advantage was styling...yeah the 1970s Malibus were sort of cool looking.

Oh...and perhaps the most important part of the evolution of that car? It is essentially pollution free. Compared to its ancestors the damned thing is unbelievably clean running. And to make it even better, industry understands how to recycle its component parts when its service life has ended, so much of that Malibu will end up in the next generation of cars...not landfills.

Compare that to any electric vehicle and the differences are stark. EVs are simply bad for our environment, and anyone who buys one is damaging our society: by making it dirtier, by requiring rare materials whose extraction from the earth is incredibly inefficient and damaging, not to mention the labor involved is often only modestly different than slavery.

And they can't even build a pick-up truck that can carry all of that delicious elephant seal meat more than a few miles before requiring a multi-hour recharge!

THAT is a true First-World Problem!

posted by CBD at 02:00 PM

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