We got the first to replace our 10-year-old, gas-powered Subaru, and after only two years of driving, the E.V. has created fewer emissions over its lifetime than if we had kept the old car. It will take our second E.V. only four years to create fewer emissions over its lifetime than the 2005 hybrid Prius it replaced. That’s counting the production of the batteries and the emissions from charging the E.V.s, and the emissions payback time will only continue to drop as more emissions-free wind and solar power comes onto the grid and battery technology improves.
The author of course did not look at having one less car, and substituting an ebike or mass transit for part of their driving, which would have lowered emissions by a larger amount.
Right, if you need a car, an electric car is best for rhe environment. Even better is to not need a car. Better still is for your parents to have not reproduced so as to create one less human on earth. Why didn’t the author compare not existing to owning an EV? Because that’s not a reasonable comparison.
An ebike is not a replacement for a car. Relocating to a walkable urban space with functional public transit is not feasible for most people. It is not unreasonable when comparing the relative benefits of different cars to limit the discussion to, you know, cars.
No, the discussion should be about fixing the actual problem (lack of walkable urban spaces).
There are places in the world outside of urban spaces. Some of us even visit and/or live there.
“Some” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. In the US about 80% of the population is urban, which means we even if we only fix things for the urban folks and ignore the rural ones, we still solve 80% of the problem and that’s pretty damn good.
Frankly, I’m really starting to get sick and tired of the “but I’m a special snowflake, what about me” rebuttal – it’s disingenuous, reactionary and misses the big picture, which is that folks with exceptional circumstances just don’t fucking matter all that much, by definition. Sorry not sorry.
Cite your source. Pew Research reports that as of 2018 the mix was
Which puts your entire point in the shitter, by your own logic.
Edit- And if you cite Census.gov you should be aware they don’t recognize a distinction between suburban and urban, and we both know that for walking and mass transit they’re entirely different worlds.
Even if we go by your numbers, 30% is still negligible. (“Suburban” counts as urban, BTW.)
Also, my source is the US census and is newer than yours (2022).
Edit to reply to your edit: no, what you wrote…
…is bullshit. I absolutely do not accept that as a premise, because the suburbs are nothing more than defective urbanism. They are a straight-up mistake and should cease to exist. Every suburb, without exception, should either be densified to the point that walking and mass transit are viable, or razed and returned to farmland or wilderness.
“30% of the populace is negligible, and we should burn peoples neighborhoods to the ground.”
See my edit note. Census.gov doesn’t distinguish between Urban and Suburban. Do you really think 50% of the US population switched lifestyles in the last 5 years? Be reasonable.
See my edit note, and stop trying to condescend to tell me what “we both know” or that I’m not being “reasonable.” You are not entitled to assume that your position is some kind of default unassailable truth.
The census is right not to make that distinction!
Yikes. I’m sorry you feel that way about the points I was trying to express. I’m frankly disappointed we couldn’t have a pleasant conversation here.
Your solution requires we fix culture, infrastructure, housing, affordability, mass transit, and urban spaces. And do that all while minimizing the carbon footprint of gathering the necessary resources and implementing these decades worth of changes quick enough to make a significant dent in the carbon footprint we’re all a part of.
Electric cars are a fantastic environmental improvement for the 70% (maybe a little less, adjusting for proximity to city center, seniors, with, etc…) of Americans that find themselves largely disconnected from urban environments where well implemented mass transit works wonderfully.
Reality can’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
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Ok. Build walkable urban spaces across America. In the meantime, people who need cars should get electric ones.
Yeah, that’s fine. It’s just important that it be understood that it’s a band-aid, not a cure.