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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe
The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe

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Will Driving Electric Cars Solve Global Warming?

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Will Driving Electric Cars Solve Global Warming?

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I’m going to bring up a few things which have probably been discussed and are being considered, at least I hope they have/are. 1- Ore extraction and local impact as primary it seems the ore required is in less developed parts of the world. 2- Clean up and restoration of that ore extraction process. 3- Processing and shipping of those materials. 4- The biggest concern for me is, imagine a junkyards as vast as the ones we have now full of unrecovered batteries. I love the idea of electric vehicles would happily drive one myself. The infrastructure for my area of the country is just not there.

BRH

Will [X] solve global warming? No. Not unless [X] is a wide-reaching set of carefully considered responses.

MatteBush

I thought they sounded inverted…

MatteBush

Yeah, Cars and our culture obsesses with individual transportation, which don't make us more free, but more slave on those type of vehicle, is a big problem in itself, the useless crave of SUV, EV or not don't reduce the space loss from parking space and city infrastructure that is need and is purely a waste of space and energy (which cloud be use for green space and sustainable densification of population and stop city sprawling, which rely on car culture). we have to kick our addiction to cars in the long term. Short term EV are great, and we need them as quick as possible, yes but the car problem is not solve by them. we need do switch massively to public and active transportation, walk and bike when you can. A lot of us choose to live far from work, I did the reverse, because I did not want to be a slave to my car anymore. one thing other. having 100% fossil fuel to recharge a EV is not ideal, of course, but since they are 2-3 time more efficient. They will reduce your Co2 emissions anyway and reduce local air pollution. So, even with 100% coal electricity, they are hugely advantageous over ICE. Not the best but not a reason not to switch if you have to switch.

Frederick Cossette

I guess I really wasn't trying to compare them, just pointing out there is no free lunch with batteries, and it is seldom talked about. But to your point, while the profits of FF dwarf batteries, so does the transportation provided. If we had an equal amount of battery powered transportation to FF then that would be a more appropriate profit/externalized cost comparison.

Joshua Kuhn

No! They don't even solve the car problem. "Here’s the blunt reality — reasonably-sized electric vehicles need to be the future of cars, but they can’t be the future of urban mobility. Fewer cars. Less driving. More inviting mobility options. Better communities and cities. These are the 4 pillars of the REAL solution." https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1517371236547846144

Robin Capper

Yeah, and slavery, environmental 'externalized costs' are all to be abhorred. But fossil fuels orders of magnitude dwarf batteries. I am not an expert, but (sources below) it looks to me like FF is going to profit twice the $$ by next saturday that batts will make all year. And I am using profit as a proxy for external costs. I don't think you are comparing apples to apples here. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/21/revealed-oil-sectors-staggering-profits-last-50-years https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/power-spike-how-battery-makers-can-respond-to-surging-demand-from-evs

Jess Donovan

Internal combustion cars are not the biggest CO₂ offender but they are one of the bigger air pollutants in the cities. For me, switch to hybrids and then to electric is, first of all, about improving the city air, especially given that most of electricity still comes from fossil fuel.

Alexander Czar

Do you guys get more ad $$ if we let the ads go their full 30 seconds?

Emily Anne Daniel

You guys talk a lot about externalized cost of the fossil fuel industry, but curios on your thoughts about the worldwide externalized cost of batteries. Seems like there is a lot of slave labor issues with rare earth metal mining.

Joshua Kuhn

Please release these on the patreon RSS feed!

Nicholas

Thanks, great episode. BTW, looks like there is a little problem with the green screen. Lots of flickering in the left mike and stand. (And the mikes are upside down :-) )

Ben


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