It’s time to open a new chapter in the history books. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said now is the time to act on climate change to protect the planet for our kids and their kids’ kids’ kids’.
Rivian is more than just another automaker. It’s not even your average EV maker. The company’s entire purpose is to “create products and services that help our planet transition to carbon neutral energy and transportation.”
It also happens to build some of the most unique EVs on the road today. Rivian’s “Electric Adventure Vehicles,” the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, are built for more than just getting from point A to point B.
They can also plow through over 3 feet of water, rock climb a 100% grade, and take off quicker than your average sports car.
However, Rivian is doing much more in the background, other than just selling EVs, to “build the kind of future our kids and our kids’ kids’ deserve.”
Every aspect of the company is designed for a sustainable future. Rivian’s battery packs can easily be removed for recycling or other uses. Its interiors include 100% animal-free materials, and Rivian’s charging network (Rivian Adventure Network) is powered entirely by renewable energy.
Rivian is also quickly adding to its portfolio of clean energy projects, expanding wind, solar, and hydroelectric options across the US.
The company’s utility-scale solar project in Tennesee and Starfire Solar project on a former coal mining site in Kentucky are already bringing renewable energy to local businesses and communities.
Rivian CEO says now is the time to act on climate change
Rivian knows building EVs is not enough. On Tuesday, Scaringe issued an urgent call to action, saying now must be the time to make history.
Scaringe says we are alive during one of “the most significant moments in recorded human history.”
Society has advanced greatly over the past few hundred years due to new technology and industrial capabilities, producing capabilities that were previously unimaginable. However, the same technology is destroying the only home we have, slowly but surely.
Growing up a car enthusiast, Scaringe loved every aspect of them, from the idea of driving to the freedom they could provide.
As he got older, he realized that cars, as important as they were for the progress of society, were “simultaneously the root of the impact they’re having on our climate.”
The same vehicles he loved played a big role in the re-carbonization of our atmosphere. In just a few generations, we have taken what accumulated over hundreds of millions of years and re-distributed the CO2 back into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels in just over 150 years.
According to Scaringe, we are “at the very beginning of seeing the impacts” of that. You may have noticed it on those extremely hot days or heard about the increasingly aggressive storms and weather on the news.
Although it’s still in its early stages, these changes will, little by little, “make the planet less inhabitable.”
Not only for humans, but we are already seeing a rate of extinction on Earth that’s never been seen before.
Scaringe said this is the moment we have a choice. In a perfect world, when we look back in another few thousand years, there will be a little blip called the fossil fuel era. It will cover how humans rapidly industrialized with advanced new technology but also developed a deep dependency on fossil fuels.
The next chapter will hopefully explain how we developed new technologies to wean off fossil fuels before we put all the carbon back into the atmosphere.
Rivian’s leader explained these changes must begin now. We need to continue expanding renewable energy on our grid while replacing the 1.5 billion gas-powered cars on the road with EVs.
The road may not be perfect, but we need to start somewhere. The best part of EVs is that they get cleaner and more efficient over time. It’s time to protect our only home for our kids and their kids’ kids’ kids.’
Source: Rivian
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