Everyone knows that electric vehicles are supposed to be better for the planet than gas cars. That’s the driving reason behind a global effort to transition toward batteries.
But what about the harms caused by mining for battery minerals? And coal-fired power plants for the electricity to charge the cars? And battery waste? Is it really true that EVs are better?
The answer is yes. But Americans are growing less convinced.
The net benefits of EVs have been frequently fact-checked, including by NPR. “No technology is perfect, but the electric vehicles are going to offer a significant benefit as compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles,” Jessika Trancik, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told NPR this spring.
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There’s a bunch of misinformation and people who don’t care to research what they hear, or they research it in places that give them more misinformation.
My dad is a good example, where he believes EVs are just as, if not more, wasteful because of the precious minerals they require for their batteries. I don’t know where he heard that, but that’s what he believes now.
The problem is that there is a kernel of truth in the bullshit. EV manufacturers do create a lot of hazardous waste, and mining lithium, cobalt, et al does horrifying damage to the earth and the people who live there. We should be talking about that, and how to improve it.
That’s not an argument against EVs, though. It’s a reason to improve them, to iterate on the design. These are important conversations to have.
But on one side, you have the capitalist who makes money if you buy a car that runs on gasoline. They want to use any criticism of electric transportation, public infrastructure, or regulations and turn it into a staunch defense of the status quo or worse.
And on the other side, you have the capitalist who makes money if you buy an electric vehicle. They want to dismiss any criticism of their technology, the required infrastructure, or regulatory capture as the death throes of the fossil fuel industry.
Those are the sides. Those are the loudest voices. They stand just behind any scientific research and shout their bullshit as though it was fully supported by whatever flimsy preliminary result they can pay to produce.
Too often, it’s the same capitalist. They profit from the chaos and confusion. They count on you giving up and moving on, because they make the most money when exhaustion and demagogeury prevents any meaningful debate. They shout because they know their arguments are bullshit, and they win because they pay for the process we use to select our leaders.
also planned obsolescence. they are already turning cars into smartphones and i hate it so bad.
Ask your dad if he knows why people steal catalytic converters from ICE vehicles.
For anyone not aware, it’s because they’re filled with Palladium — a precious rare earth metal. One where 40% of the world’s supply comes from Russia.
Palladium’s prevalence in the Earth’s crust is about 0.015 ppm. Lithium’s prevalence is 20 ppm — or around 1300 times more abundant than palladium. Which is why people steal catalytic converters in the first place.
Your dad and mine somehow don’t remember how atrocious the old supply is and all the spill disasters are past mitigated events. Even when their own cars leak oil in the streets, make pretty rainbows, and gave them something else to tell their kids to not touch, it’s all… Normal. Inconsequential. It came from a factory they didn’t see leak and it does down a sewer into a system they can’t see. But, EV mines? We’ll if yours beleives the mines are dirtier than petrol cars, I assume it’s the same as mine: the belief that their crusty “old school” cars are being targeted for removal and that their way of life is at stake and that some elite progressive group wants to make them poor by way of expensive EVs. Just ignore the part where mine brags about affording ever-in creasing gas prices in a gas guzzler personal vehicle.
And we’re too dumb so we try to respond with facts but it’s 100% about their feelings.
You’ve got the nominee of the Republican party (and former president) literally saying this shit, and half the media going along with that, of course a huge amount of Americans are going to believe it.
But in a way he’s not wrong. The best car for the earth is the one you have right now. Don’t act like buying a electric vehicle because it is electric is good for the earth. Purchasing a new vehicle every five years is not good for the earth no matter what kind of vehicle you buy.