I find this ignorance really frustrating that people believe purchasing an electric car is somehow environmentally neutral. People should be educated on the environmental toll of EV production, lithium mining, tire pollution etc.

  • fenynro@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    10 months ago

    I completely agree with that message, but until we get to that point there is a clear utility for EVs.

    Shifting urban development to be less car-centric overall will take decades of effort, if not generations, and we can’t expect people to quit their commuter job, sell their car, and find an overlap of employment and public transport that works for the planet when there’s no social or infrastructural support for it.

    In the meantime, to me at least, it makes sense to transition to EVs instead of ICE while that infrastructure is developed. It seems to me that perfect (a public transportation focused society) is becoming the enemy of good (reduced emissions for the sea of single person vehicles we currently have), or at least that is frequently my perception when every thread talking about EVs has people in the comments mentioning manufacturing costs as a hurdle, when the only plausible alternative is ICE vehicles with more environmental impact

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      We can’t, but we also can’t expect it to be possible to change if we don’t stop zoning in such low and sprawling densities. The more car centric infrastructure we build, the deeper the hole gets. We can build transit prioritized neighbourhoods and also encourage EV development, but the former is nearly illegal to build in much of North America.