To the Editor:
Re “New Rule Goals to Push E.V.s to Fore” (Enterprise, March 21):
I’m 100% for electrical automobiles. I commend President Biden for making such a daring and forward-thinking proposal. However the actuality is that this will by no means occur in right this moment’s America. As your story notes, fossil gas corporations and Republican attorneys basic are more likely to file authorized challenges.
One factor that additionally must be addressed is the provision of the supplies wanted to make the batteries. We should understand how a lot injury is finished to the atmosphere as a way to entry these supplies.
E.V.s won’t ever turn into mainstream till some main infrastructure modifications happen. These embrace the necessity for tons of of hundreds of charging stations throughout America, together with fast-charging stations. Fortunately, Mr. Biden’s inexperienced initiatives and infrastructure plans are already in place so these are starting to take form.
E.V.s should additionally see an enormous enhance in battery capability, thus permitting customers to drive longer distances on a single cost.
And eventually, the price of these automobiles should turn into reasonably priced for many who have been unable to purchase them prior to now.
On the upside, like all expertise, it will occur organically. As time goes on, E.V.s will turn into extra reasonably priced.
Prediction: It can take one other seven to 10 years earlier than E.V.s turn into mainstream.
Ben Milano
Lindenhurst, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “A Hybrid-First Technique Is Paying Off for Toyota” (Enterprise, March 13):
Toyota’s hybrid-first technique could also be delivering massive income proper now, however Toyota stands to lose out to its rivals if the corporate refuses to make a major transition to electrical automobiles.
The place Toyota is getting it flawed is that the transition to electrical automobiles is unavoidable. The transportation trade is the one largest U.S. supply of greenhouse gasoline emissions, and hybrid automobiles nonetheless run on gasoline. E.V.s don’t produce tailpipe emissions and are your best option to eradicate carbon air pollution.
Monitoring short-term monetary advantages — inventory costs, earnings and gross sales — misses the purpose. Whereas The Instances notes that Toyota bought 15,000 E.V.s within the U.S. in 2023, I’m not impressed. Toyota is woefully behind the gross sales targets of competitor manufacturers.
Toyota is at a precipice: The corporate can both proceed to double down on gas-powered hybrids and danger turning into out of date — or it may well meaningfully begin producing all-electric automobiles. Ought to Toyota proceed to refuse an E.V. transition, its deal with hybrids will show to be shortsighted, coming on the expense of worsening the local weather disaster and devaluing the model.
Ben Scott
London
The author is head of automotive at Carbon Tracker.
Putin’s Anti-Homosexual Persecution
To the Editor:
Re “Putin’s Struggle In opposition to Queer Ukrainians,” by J. Lester Feder (Opinion visitor essay, March 17):
I’m a homosexual man of a sure age. My coronary heart ached and my intestine wrenched once I learn Mr. Feder’s reviews of Russian atrocities concentrating on L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians. As if Vladimir Putin’s politicized use of homophobia weren’t dangerous sufficient, wielding such hate as a weapon of conflict takes his depravity to entire new ranges.
Whereas I by no means skilled the focused torture and persecution Ukrainian gays now expertise, Mr. Feder’s piece jogged my memory that there have been instances and locations right here within the U.S. that completely made being homosexual unsafe. Given the current rise in hate crimes of varied kinds, together with elevated violence in opposition to homosexual folks — to not point out potential rollbacks of homosexual rights by the unconventional proper — we’re transferring again to these unsafe instances.
It’s crucial that the worldwide neighborhood totally examine and prosecute all Russian conflict crimes, together with crimes in opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians. That would be the first constructive step towards eradicating violent anti-gay ideology in Ukraine and right here at house.
S.S. Brown
San Diego
Church and State
To the Editor:
Re “G.O.P. Official in N. Carolina Sows Gospel of Far Proper” (information article, March 19):
Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, claims he can’t discover the phrase “separation of church and state” within the “writings of any patriot, wherever.”
He apparently didn’t look very far, as a result of Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802 that the First Modification’s institution clause created “a wall of separation between Church & State” designed to maintain the federal government from influencing religions.
To the Editor:
Re “I Requested My Mother if She Was Ready to Die,” by Shaina Feinberg and Julia Rothman (Sunday Enterprise, March 17):
Along with the superb recommendation on this article, I recommend writing your individual obituary. Not all of us are fortunate sufficient to have one written by reporters for The New York Instances, however we will observe their mannequin of getting the fundamentals ready.
It’s surprising how many individuals don’t know all of their husband/spouse/important different’s family members and mates; academic, skilled or civic achievements; and even the place they could need charitable donations despatched.
Maintain it together with your different paperwork pertaining to your dying — together with the photograph you wish to accompany it — and you’ll relieve your family members of yet another unhappy job as they mourn your passing.
Jana Goldman
Honor, Mich.
To the Editor:
The article about end-of-life planning supplied many beneficial concepts however it didn’t point out one which has put me extra comfortable: donating my physique to science.
I reached out to an area medical faculty (on this case, the College of California San Francisco) and signed up for its Willed Physique Program.
Not solely will I relaxation realizing that my physique helps to coach the subsequent era of physicians, however this system additionally pays for every part, together with pickup and cremation, so I will be assured that my household received’t spend our hard-earned cash on inflated funeral bills as an alternative of on issues that make them completely happy.
Lisa Tsering
El Cerrito, Calif.
Falling Birthrates
To the Editor:
Re “Birthrates Are Plummeting Worldwide. Why?” (“The Ezra Klein Present,” Opinion, nytimes.com, March 19):
That birthrates are plummeting around the globe is testomony to the truth that life is mostly getting higher. With rising incomes, there are extra income-earning alternatives, significantly for ladies. In lots of international locations the quantity of schooling wanted for a given job has elevated. Persons are finding out longer and dealing tougher.
The price of having a child must be thought of in opposition to the lack of revenue from a lady’s wages, a trade-off that was not required when jobs for ladies had been comparatively few and much between. As a consequence girls are sometimes selecting to not have infants.
Additional, girls are getting married later and having infants later in life, so they may find yourself having fewer youngsters in contrast with girls who begin having youngsters a lot earlier in life.
Ananish Chaudhuri
Auckland, New Zealand
The author is professor of experimental economics on the College of Auckland and the writer of the forthcoming “Economics: A International Introduction.”
