We had trolley busses here in Wellington NZ for decades. The network needed an upgrade so our shortsighted council ripped it down while promising battery buses to replace the trolleys.
We ended up with old, dirty, diesels chugging round our city for years, an I’m not sure we’ve gotten rid of them all yet.
It was a disaster.
With new worlds to deliver The Word to? Nah they wouldn’t change, but they’d get serious about space travel.