During summers in college, I worked as an orderly in psychiatric hospitals.  One day, a group of teenage patients wanted to play hearts. I had never played the game before. It sounded like fun, so I agreed. The trouble started as cards were being dealt. How many cards did each person get? Was it six? Eight? 13? 

And can you even play hearts with six people? One patient started yelling.  Another started weeping. Two started wrestling over the deck to be the dealer. Other orderlies had to come help, and everyone was sent to their rooms to recover.

The head nurse did not yell at me. She just said, “You need to be clear in your own mind about what needs to be done. That goes for taking blood pressures. That goes for getting everyone to meals, and that goes for playing cards.”

That night, my fiancé taught me how to play hearts and wrote out the rules.  The following day, the teens and I tried again, but this time I was firm about the rules, and we had a great time.

As the head nurse said, when things are chaotic or confusing, you need to get clear on what needs to be done.

Recently, things in the U.S. have been getting chaotic and confusing. On the climate protection front, the basic fact to get clear on is that we humans must stop burning coal, oil and natural gas.  

There are other things we can do about global warming besides stopping fossil fuels. Researchers who study those other approaches have seen their work get misunderstood, and they have started including explanations in their reporting.

For example, a team that studied the benefits of maintaining forests reported, “The research team stress the importance of protecting and maintaining natural carbon sinks while accepting that doing so cannot compensate for ongoing fossil fuel use.”

A team exploring how to get renewable energy up to the needed levels reported, “Just spending on our energy systems to create more investment in renewable energy is not enough if we don’t also stop fossil fuel burning.”  

A researcher exploring the possibility of a giant space parasol wrote, “I am not advocating in any way to move forward on any of these types of mitigation efforts. The best thing to do is to stop fossil fuel emissions as much as we can.”

That is one basic thing that you can keep in mind as we deal with the coming years. We must stop burning coal, oil and natural gas. 

As United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in 2023, action “must start with the polluted heart of the climate crisis: the fossil fuel industry…The problem is not simply fossil fuel emissions. It’s fossil fuels – period. The solution is clear: The world must phase out fossil fuels… leave oil, coal and gas in the ground where they belong.”  

And Pope Francis said, “Now is the time for new courage in abandoning fossil fuels.” 

A minimum and effective strategy to stop fossil fuels is to “buy only electric,” meaning buy only electric appliances and vehicles. This is part of Saul Griffith’s idea of “Electrify Everything.”  

Everything you own that burns gasoline or natural gas will wear out in a few decades. The electricity that gets to people’s homes in our area is already almost entirely generated without burning fossil fuels, and in a few decades, no electricity in America will involve burning coal, natural gas or gasoline. When we have only electric appliances and vehicles, we will do a lot to stop global warming.

So far, we’re doing great on natural gas. In Snohomish County, according to data from the Snohomish County Assessor’s Office, 89% of heating systems in new homes and remodels are heat pumps. That is partly because heat pumps provide air conditioning. Natural gas does not.  

We’re coming along with vehicles, but not as quickly. According to data provided by the Washington State Department of Licensing, in October to December 2024, 18% of new cars and trucks bought in the Edmonds-Lynnwood-Mountlake Terrace area were fully electric, as were 3.6% of the vehicles on the road. 

Used car sales are limited to what new cars were purchased in the past. Electric vehicles in used car sales have grown by 63% per year since early 2020. That growth follows the growth in new car sales in previous years.

Gasoline-powered cars are dropping a little more than electric vehicles are rising because some people in the Edmonds-Lynnwood-Mountlake Terrace area are reducing how many cars they register. That’s really the important thing. We don’t need electric vehicles. What we need is to stop burning gasoline. Public transportation and walking also reduce gasoline burning.

Progress on electric vehicles is likely to slow down for a few years. We need to resist that. It’s a hassle, but we can do it as long as we are clear in our own minds about what needs to be done.