How to move without fossil-fuelled transport
September 9th is World EV Day.
If you’re like me, you’d be forgiven for not hearing about it! Most of us just want to drive as it is the easiest and quickest way to get from one place to another. We don’t necessarily want to hang around with expensive technology all day long.
On the other hand, there is a long tradition of “car shows,” the first of which was held in the United States in 1901, shortly after gasoline cars were invented.
These shows were curated by the up-and-coming automakers to fuel the dream of mobility that would make us faster, farther, cozier and easier. And indeed, petrol cars seemed to be cleaner in the context of its time, as the ordinary “wheels” caused a lot of horse poo on the streets back then!
Fast forward a century and our cleaning job has gotten a lot harder than removing a bit of crap from the street. Cleaning the atmosphere will require much more effort. Part of that cleanup will be learning how to get around without fossil fuel transportation.
World EV Day isn’t just about cars. It is also not an industry organized event to sell you a product.
Depending on where you are in the world, there may be an EV Owners’ Gathering (there’s one in Alice Springs where you can ride along and learn about EV ownership) or an EV Rally (there’s at least one at in New Zealand, in Christchurch) or an exhibition about e-mobility, from bicycles to airplanes, like I expect in my city of Perth in Western Australia.
And if you can’t find anything near you but want to think more about how to break our petroleum habits, you can go online to learn more.
World EV Day is a loosely connected network of events. Its founder and main organiser, Green TV, doesn’t know exactly where or how many physical meetings will be held this year to celebrate e-mobility.
World EV Day began in 2020 with COVID dominating life and began as a mostly online global movement.
“The day is a celebration of innovation and development in the field of electric mobility and aims to promote the acceleration of the decarbonisation of the mobility sector,” says Sarah from Green TV.
Last year, her campaign achieved a traditional media reach of 1 billion across all formats, trending on Twitter with a reach of 312 million.
There may not be an e-mobility show in your city this Friday, September 9th. However, if you want to help decarbonize the world or look to the future of fossil-free flying or are just looking for an easy-ride bike or your next car, get online and see the World EV day on.
Hurry up Krishna is Indian by birth, Australian by accident and a slow traveler by choice. She is an occasional travel blogger and recently joined the writing team at The Driven. She speaks a number of Asian languages, including English, and hopes to walk, bike, or drive far and wide around the world with her trusty Kona EV. She is a professor under another name and has written numerous academic books and essays in her specialist areas of media and cultural studies.