CMV: Elon Musk is a horrible man but he’s saving the world.

Tldr: Elon musk is a bad person but the earth and humanity is better off with him alive than it is dead.<br><br>Firstly let’s just say that Elon musk is an incredibly horrible and annoying guy. He tweets like a teenager, is an incredibly shitty CEO, and doesn’t care that Tesla (his company) is a polluter. <br><br>But the reason why I think everyone should want him alive is because he’s helped accelerate 2 main factors: space exploring and electric cars. <br><br>The first reason why I think we should want Elon alive is because of his work with space explorations- in 2002 Elon Musk created SpaceX. In less than 10 years, SpaceX made human history by being the first private organization to launch a spacecraft into orbit then successfully recover it. In a couple more years, they made more history by being the first private company to dock a spacecraft with the ISS. In the couple years after that, they made more history by being the first to successfully vertically land an orbit-class rocket booster. <br><br>In 2020, spacex again made history by being the first private organization to successfully launch astronauts into orbit. Since then, they have successfully sent astronauts to the ISS multiple times. After sending astronauts to the ISS several times, spacex announced that they would be sending two astronauts from cape canaveral to the ISS but instead of sending them to the ISS, they would continue past the ISS and instead go to the moon. This would be the first human visit to the moon in over 50 years. <br><br>Ok so why is spacex so important? Why does it matter if Elon goes to the moon? The reason why it’s so important is because of a few reasons. <br><br>One of the reasons why spacex is so important is because of the lack of resources humanity would have once we colonize other planets. In one day, the sun gives us as much energy as all the coal, oil, and natural gas combined do in a year. This is why in the US for example, renewable energy is less than 15% of our energy usage. The infrastructure that would be required to completely free the US of all non-renewable energy sources is astronomical. And the reason why it’s so hard to make that infrastructure is because it requires so much energy to make the infrastructure. There’s no real way to make that with American infrastructure and resources without taking over every square inch of land. In space, we have around a million times more energy than we do on earth so we would be able to run all the machinery required to make the infrastructure with solar panels.<br><br>Another reason why it’s so important is because of the possibilities that it offers. In space, we have around a million times more resources available to us than there is on earth. With those resources, we would be able to do something that we can’t do on earth: make infinite clean energy. In the US for example, there are over 240 million cars that are all polluting. With the unlimited resources in space, we would be able to make infinite solar panels and actionable infinite clean energy.<br><br>This leads into my next point: renewable energy. The first company that Elon musk created was PayPal. He invested most of the money that he got from the sale of PayPal (approximately 165 million) into 3 companies: SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarShark (which was sold and is now called SunPower). <br><br>Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In 2004, Eberhard and Tarpenning were looking to find an investor for Tesla. They found Elon Musk who agreed to personally invest 6.3 million into Tesla. Less than a year later, Tesla successfully created the first long-distance traveling electric car. Before Tesla made the roadster, electric cars were incredibly underpowered and could only travel a few miles without needing to be charged again. Tesla changed that by inventing a more powerful and more efficient battery that allowed the car to go over 300 miles without needing to be charged. <br><br>In 2008, Tesla successfully created an electric sportscar that went over 300 miles without needing to charge. From there, the rest is history. In 2012, Tesla created an suv that could go over 300 miles. In 2016, they created a more affordable version of the car that still could go over 300 miles. Before Tesla made the roadster, less than 20,000 electric cars were sold each year. In 2020 alone, Tesla sold over 163,000 cars every month. <br><br>Tesla creates incredibly polluting cars just like every other car manufacture. The reason why electric cars are better for the environment is because most power plants are transitioning to renewable energy. Because of the transition to renewable energy, electric cars are currently on average 3-4 times more efficient than gas cars. They are projected to be around 10-15 times more efficient than gas cars in 25 years (because more power plants are transitioning to renewable energy). <br><br>The reason why Tesla is so important is because of the fact that they revolutionized the car industry by accelerating the manufacturing of electric cars. Without Tesla, we would be much further behind where we are currently in the process of phasing out gas-run cars. <br><br>Ok so why does it matter if Tesla existed? Why does it matter if they accelerated the manufacturing of electric cars? Why does it matter if they exist? The reason why it matters is because of climate change. Climate change is 100% real. To understand how real it is, let’s just remember back to when we were young and the news would talk about the polar ice caps melting. By 2050, they said, the polar ice caps will melt. Well guess what? It’s 2021 and the polar ice caps have already melted. We’re to the point where we’re already starting to feel the effects from climate change. There’s more severe storms and more severe heatwaves. Imagine what climate change will be like in 25 years. Imagine what it will be like in 50 years. Imagine what it will be like in 100 years. If we don’t do anything, we will reach a point where the earth isn’t habitable. That’s what makes Tesla so important. They accelerated the world into making a transition to climate-friendly cars and are helping us get to our goal of phasing out all the gas-run cars by 2040. This same philosophy can be applied to spacex. If we don’t do anything about space exploration, we won’t have anywhere to go once the earth turns into Venus. <br><br>In conclusion, Elon Musk is an incredibly horrible person but thanks to him, humanity might have a future.<br><br>Edit: I changed SolarShark to SunPower, it was another company musk invested in, not Tesla.