Focusing On Climate Change Too Much Might Slow EV Adoption
Focusing On Climate Change Too Much Might Slow EV Adoption
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! A recent article at Forbes explains that environmentalism might not be the best thing to focus on when selling EVs. While this may seem like a “duh” kind of thing, it affects more than ... [continued]
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I get that switching to an EV is better than a fossil fueled powered car, but shouldn't we be focusing more on public transportation, and generally not needing a car?
I agree however it will take some time to shift from car infrastructure to multimodal design, as there is a balance that’s needs to be met for North America.
Public transit, Active transport and 3-4 storey apartments should be prioritized over electric cars.
Yes, literally the ONLY solution that will impact climate change. But people prefer paying for indulgences so they can continue to sin.
That's literally not the ONLY solution that will impact climate change, because electric cars are already measurably reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
As for "indulgences" and "sin": Yikes. Now is not the time for medieval thinking. In 2024, nobody is paying for indulgences. Because the people who buy EVs don't think driving is a sin, and the people who think driving is a sin don't buy EVs.
Ah, I see you think we can buy our way out of the oncoming disaster. Good luck with that.
FYI, I'm an EV driver, you don't need to tell me anything about ev drivers.
No, I think we can mitigate the effects of climate change with effective regulation. And part of that includes replacing ICE vehicles with EVs.
BEVs do not reduce emissions enough. That is the point. Not even close to enough. And that's putting aside all of the physical space requirements, lack of water absorbtion, pollution, and personal injury caused by vehicles.
It's not an overnight fix, but the fact remains that people have magical thinking and believe EVs are fixing or addressing climate change. They ARE NOT, they continue to exacerbated the issue. Being marginally better isn't fixing or fighting anything, it just lets you feel better.
Nothing, by itself, "reduces emissions enough".
Climate change is a multifactorial problem and it will require multipronged solutions. This includes transition to EVs, transition to solar/renewable electricity production, higher efficiency homes, higher efficiency industry/agriculture, and more.
It includes a transition away from individual transportation.
Light duty vehicles account for 57% of transportation emissions. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions
There will always be individual transportation, and climate scientists account for that when setting climate goals.
Light duty EVs will contribute little to CO2 emissions once the electrical grid moves away from fossil fuels. In some states, there is already enough wind/solar electricity that EVs decrease CO2 emissions by 94%.
The idea that EVs will contribute little to global CO2 emissions is complete fantasy, and it demonstrates exactly what I was saying in my first comment. Nobody is willing to make the sacrifices necessary, so we all buy our indulgences and continue driving straight at the cliff we can clearly see. It's already too late to stop a climate disaster, we're simply determining how bad it's going to be. And from where I stand, it's going to be much worse than you're pretending.
In the meantime, we keep on buying vehicles and dumping GHG into the air and pollution into our water.