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We're all tired of hearing "eat less meat" etc. But honestly these things would make a difference. We need to switch everyone who drives a fossil fuel car to el

We're all tired of hearing "eat less meat" etc. But honestly these things would make a difference. We need to switch everyone who drives a fossil fuel car to electric, or no car at all. So make the switch. Buy an EV. Nissan leaf is affordable. Work remote if you can. Switch your home heating from oil or gas to solar or a heat pump. It's not just about people making little changes anymore. Every household needs to get rid of their oil burning machines, be they the home heating or vehicle kind. We can't do anything directly about trucking companies etc but they will follow. Recharging costs pittance next to refuelling and range goes up every year. The EV you buy now will save you money. The next one you buy will run rings around your old gas guzzler. The best, least depressing and least defeatist way to think about it is that the world is changing in the next 12 years and we're the early adopters. And if you don't offload that gas car now it'll be unsellable in 6 years

kgabis 8y ago
Wouldn't replacing every ICE car with electric one be extremely wasteful? Cars cost resources and energy to produce so it makes sense to keep driving them for as long as possible. Focusing on emissions from driving doesn't account for the whole picture. Also, in many countries majority of energy production comes from burning fossil fuels so switching to electric cars doesn't magically solve CO2 emissions problem.
- roryisok 8y ago
  Cars cost resources and energy to produce, but right now new fossil fuel cars are being produced every minute. We don't stop that process by continuing to drive a car that belches out CO2. Sure, if everyone continues driving their 10 year old Volkswagen and all car companies stop production tomorrow it might have a more immediate short term effect than changing to EV. But even in this impossible scenario, long term all those cars are still emitting CO2. I do take your point that transportation is not the whole picture, but we can't do anything on a personal level to close a coal plant, other than write to our local representatives in government. It's also worth pointing out that if all the power for EVs is generated from coal it's still less carbon than petrol and diesel cars on the road, because of how power plants are run at optimal efficiency, where as cars have to speed up and slow down, idle in traffic etc

kgabis 8y ago

Wouldn't replacing every ICE car with electric one be extremely wasteful? Cars cost resources and energy to produce so it makes sense to keep driving them for as long as possible. Focusing on emissions from driving doesn't account for the whole picture. Also, in many countries majority of energy production comes from burning fossil fuels so switching to electric cars doesn't magically solve CO2 emissions problem.

roryisok 8y ago
Cars cost resources and energy to produce, but right now new fossil fuel cars are being produced every minute. We don't stop that process by continuing to drive a car that belches out CO2. Sure, if everyone continues driving their 10 year old Volkswagen and all car companies stop production tomorrow it might have a more immediate short term effect than changing to EV. But even in this impossible scenario, long term all those cars are still emitting CO2. I do take your point that transportation is not the whole picture, but we can't do anything on a personal level to close a coal plant, other than write to our local representatives in government. It's also worth pointing out that if all the power for EVs is generated from coal it's still less carbon than petrol and diesel cars on the road, because of how power plants are run at optimal efficiency, where as cars have to speed up and slow down, idle in traffic etc