>the air quality in cities is bad I'm all for reducing emissions. Having said that, let's be frank about air quality having improved immensely over recent dec

>the air quality in cities is bad I'm all for reducing emissions. Having said that, let's be frank about air quality having improved immensely over recent decades. Back before the (ICE and electric) cars became a thing, the inner city air and rivers were much more heavily polluted, by coal & wood heating, and outflow of untreated sewage. It's only thanks to significant surplus, provided by high efficiency, in turn provided by modern technology & science - including transportation - that we can invest heavily into actively (scrubbers) and passively (more involved, but cleaner processes) reducing pollution. So yes, we want to reduce emissions, eventually doing away with most, or all, ICE and other oil consumers. But the technology necessary, and the required economic surplus, is pretty much provided and accelerated by the cheap and portable energy generators in cars and others, fueled & lubricated by petrol and other fossil fuels. Ditto smaller, lighter products made of plastics and other materials we currently manufacture partly off of crude oil. Path dependence, let's consider the whole picture.