YouTube video “Why Electric Cars Won’t Save Us”, channel is Our Changing Climate.
Graph shows that in 2021, 6.6 million, or 8.5% of global car sales were electric. It didn’t say if this included plug-in hybrids.
Graphic shows that life cycle emissions of EVs in Europe are 66 to 69% lower than gas cars; in the US, EVs are 60 to 68% lower; in China EVs are 37 to 45% lower than gas powered cars. This doesn’t seem right – European cars are more efficient that US because fuels are more expensive, so they get better gas mileage.
He said, “And those numbers will continue to drop as electric grids decarbonize.”
He then goes on to quote an article from the UK that says the batteries for UK EVs will need most or more than the world’s production of lithium, cobalt, neodymium, copper, etc. The number of EVs is growing so it is expected that more raw materials will be needed. They failed to say that much of the valuable copper comes from recycled copper. As the population of old ICEVs (internal combustion engine vehicles) drops, the copper from those will supply some of the copper for the new EVs. Copper is already being mined so this is not new.
Some of the EVs will use *no* cobalt or nickel in the LFP batteries. And CATL is selling sodium ion batteries that do not use lithium. The iron and sodium for these low cost batteries require no new mining. What really makes me angry is that the fear mongers make an issue of lithium mining but they fail to tell you that there is *no* mining where lithium is extracted from salts that come from dried brine ponds.
He goes on, says there are an estimated 1.4 billion cars on the road today. He shows an article that says:
<<UNCTAD
Developing countries pay environmental costs of electric car batteries
Growth in electric car sales is great news for our fight against climate change, but the mining of minerals used in their batteries poses serious risks for the environment.
“Most consumers are only aware of the ‘clean’ aspects of electric vehicles,” says Pamela Coke-Hamilton, UNCTAD’s director of international trade. “The dirty aspects of the production process are out of sight.”
He says, “In some ways, we might be replacing oil with precious metals and raw materials. And looking towards the future, it’s not too far of a leap to imagine the US going to war to protect lithium deposits instead of oil interests.”
The fossil fuels industries will try every trick and lie to stop us from stopping them from killing us with fossil fuels! They use the same tactics that the tobacco industry used to make us not believe that tobacco causes cancer.
He goes on to say that mass transportation; trains, buses, the subways are the best form of transportation. Mass transportation was a lot better before Covid. But now any crowded place with a lot of people is a contagious disease spreading event that most people want to avoid.