• Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    3 months ago

    Halff said the lost trees were equivalent to about 13,000 tonnes of CO2, the annual amount emitted by 2,800 [average internal combustion engine cars]in the US. “So that’s a fraction of the number of the electric cars that Tesla produces and sells every quarter,” he said. “You always have trade-offs, so you need to be aware of what the terms of the trade-off are.”

    Don’t you just love it when people “forget” to include construction of the facility and production of those EVs in their CO2 calculations?

    Aside from that, EVs aren’t going to save the environment. They will only make cities’ air pollution a little less.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      3 months ago

      What EVs will do is save us from an ever-approaching energy crisis, by making an alternative to motor fuel, and reducing global dependence on places like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia for fuel, which limits those nations’ ability to suppress their own populations or export fuckery outside their borders.

      • Pechente@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Yeah but it seems like public transport is always the skeleton at the ocean floor meme in these discussions. Good public transport would make cities more livable and reduce pollution dramatically and reduce our dependence on petrostates.

        Sure, it’s not feasible everywhere but at least here in Germany it’s pretty good for regional transport in towns and cities but always feels kinda disregarded and forgotten by politicians.

        • aasatru@kbin.earth
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 months ago

          Public infrastructure. Public transportation, but also bike infrastructure. Not just thrown in as an afterthought, but as the primary concern. As long as people living in cities still think it’s somewhat reasonable to own a car we’re failing.

      • riodoro1@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        We keep saving us from more crises by manufacturing more shit and consuming more resources for „just a stepping stone” solution. Making more shit sacs rich in the process.

        Interesting how that works.

        Truth is that humanity will have to face degrowth at some point. It could be gradual and planned now or it will be sudden and chaotic in a rather near future. All those EVs we keep pumping out to keep our 1960’s dream of personal transportation afloat consume a lot of materials and resources we could’ve placed elsewhere or just leave fucking untouched.

        • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          What do you envision when you say degrowth?

          Because for good or bad, I don’t see a future anytime soon where personal vehicles are gone. People need to get around to live and in most places public transit isn’t up to the task. To my mind best case we get governments to start building more public transit and as those systems get better it creates a virtuous cycle where more and more people can practically make the change.

          In the meantime if we switch from gas to electric cars that is a net positive, even though switching to public transit would be much more of a net positive.

      • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        Sure, we just need to be able to finf an ethically and ecologically responsible source for lithium.

        Top 10 largest lithium mines are in Australia, Chile, Argentina and China.
        The kicker is CO² emissions for extraction.
        Approximately 15 tonnes of CO2 are emitted for every tonne of lithium extracted.
        And then the actual production.
        Tesla Model 3 holds an 80 kWh lithium-ion battery. CO2 emissions for manufacturing that battery would range between 3120 kg (about 3 tons) and 15,680 kg (about 16 tons). I’m pretty sure this figure includes the extraction emissions.

        Is this less than the life cycle emissions for manufacturing fuel and ICE vehicles?
        Of course! Does that mean we should just look at that as job done?
        No, not in the least. We absolutely have to get clean energy into every step of the process, especially refining.