The slow destruction of Venice by motor traffic has a name that residents use without needing to explain it. Moto ondoso is the wave motion generated by powered boats, and it is doing measurable structural damage to a city built on brick, timber piles, and Istrian stone that were never designed to be hit repeatedly at the waterline. The mechanism is straightforward. Wake washes against the quay walls and building foundations, scours out the mortar, and exposes the brick.

The honest answer is: we’re not close to a single “oil replacement.” Instead, three technologies are sorting themselves into different lanes, and one of them has already lost the mass-market race. Batteries: already winning where it matters most For passenger cars and most light trucks, the battle is over. Global electric car sales exceeded 20 million in 2025, reaching about 25 percent of total car sales, with the IEA expecting growth to roughly 28 percent of total car sales in 2026.