Pay-walled, so only got the summary... but even "emissions" isn't a simple calculation... do you include the electricity generation you get your power from? What about emissions on what went into something you buy? The mining, processing, shipping, refining, manufacturing and distribution of the final product, and many component hierarchies in play?
Depending on how you look at something, getting an electric car is a horrible thing to do. Even then, is that better or worse than charging it at night from a coal power plant?
The problem is, there is not simple solution, as pollution in general is not a simple problem. Reducing direct emissions is part of it... but shifting from fossil fuels with a high energy, low energy cost, to then use batteries, with their own environmental impact on material construction, refinement and recycle/destruction... and then getting that power (charging at night) from electricity that comes from a coal power plant with worse energy cost than the original material you were burning anyway... is it really a net positive?
That doesn't even count a corporation's indirect influence... are the bulk of the workers driving an hour each way each day? Where does the energy at play come from.
I'm a strong proponent of nuclear power in the near term... and getting water distribution to combine multiple sources of electricity and natural resources for hydrogen as a primary fuel source for ground vehicles.
I think a lot of the woke efforts in and of themselves are short sighted, and not very well thought out at all though.
Depending on how you look at something, getting an electric car is a horrible thing to do. Even then, is that better or worse than charging it at night from a coal power plant?
The problem is, there is not simple solution, as pollution in general is not a simple problem. Reducing direct emissions is part of it... but shifting from fossil fuels with a high energy, low energy cost, to then use batteries, with their own environmental impact on material construction, refinement and recycle/destruction... and then getting that power (charging at night) from electricity that comes from a coal power plant with worse energy cost than the original material you were burning anyway... is it really a net positive?
That doesn't even count a corporation's indirect influence... are the bulk of the workers driving an hour each way each day? Where does the energy at play come from.
I'm a strong proponent of nuclear power in the near term... and getting water distribution to combine multiple sources of electricity and natural resources for hydrogen as a primary fuel source for ground vehicles.
I think a lot of the woke efforts in and of themselves are short sighted, and not very well thought out at all though.