cbforever

EV's are a good idea, but more people need to understand that they're not a panacea. In many ways, we're just shifting the cost of environmental destruction onto the third-world, in terms of destructive mining practices required in the production of the batteries. Likewise, the toxic components of the batteries remain toxic indefinitely, unlike nuclear waste, which continues to not only be more and more re-usable, meaning less is produced, but also has a defined time-span after which it is no longer hazardous. This is a challenge with EV's as well as with solar and wind power generation, because in order to allow for 24/7 power distribution, we'll need more and better batteries (this doesn't address the other issues such as scalability.) These problems have to be addressed so that we're not just substituting one environmental problem for another.

That said, EV's are a step in the right direction, because we've got to get emissions under control. We shouldn't need to be burning any fossil fuels except on a very small scale. I don't see jet aircraft being able to operate without fossil fuels yet, not without some huge advance in technology, and we'll still need petroleum for plastics manufacture, but if we can eliminate the emissions from ground vehicles and power generation, that would be a huge step in the right direction. (Of course, I will continue to insist that nuclear must be a part of this conversation, but it gets terrible, and almost always unwarranted, press.)

Also, worth a double-post:

A huge reason to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels is that we could disentangle ourselves politically from brutal regimes like the Saudis. I'm certainly outraged at Trump's willingness to not only ignore but actively cover up Khashoggi's torture and murder, but let's be honest: every President, Democratic and Republican has been soft on the Saudis. Someone over on the old LJ (Dreamwidth now) talk_politics group noted that this might cost Trump some votes, but nowhere near as many as $8 a gallon gas would. That's absolutely true, and we should do everything we can to find alternatives that will allow us to no longer be complicit in other nations' atrocities. (We commit enough atrocities of our own, thank you very much.)

I challenged him to a fistfight on Twitter. He didn’t respond.

Clearly he’s afraid of me. No other explanation.

Nice that Biden may be taking a tougher line with the Saudis, though exactly how that manifests remains to be seen. I have become a lot more convinced in the past two years that EVs are the way to go for personal transportation, though I agree with 2018 Dex that they're not in and of themselves a solution to global heating. There has to be an increased emphasis on mass transit, cycling and walking in areas where that's feasible. Hopefully the rapid onset of mass telecommuting over the past year will also contribute to a lower carbon footprint for developed countries.

As for Elon, it doesn't seem that now being the world's richest person has made him an awful lot less bonkers than he was before. There are some things that money can't buy...