3 ms·

And electrify what cars we have.

meristohm 5y ago
And reduce our use of multi-ton vehicles, because electric or not, the conversion cost of that energy is not cheap. Cars are tools first, far before toys, and they tend to need long, flat surfaces to roll on, which disrupt animal movement and harbor plants that sometimes take over. Driving slower, less often, and on dirt roads seems better for some concerns. Depends on what you care about.
- Robotbeat 5y ago
  Driving on dirt roads? That is not better for the environment! Requires bigger vehicles, potentially bad for drainage, dirty and dangerous.
  - meristohm 5y ago
    You might be right. What are the costs of bitumen/asphalt and oil on the ground over so much area?
barbs 5y ago
Are you suggesting we somehow make our existing gasoline-powered cars electric? I'm not very up-to-date so I didn't think that was possible. Unless you just mean replacing them with electric ones?
- Robotbeat 5y ago
  It is possible to convert them, but that’s not what I meant. Refuse to buy any new fossil fuel vehicle. I personally think it’d be fairly easy to just require all new vehicles to have plugs. Already, EPA fuel consumption rules have helped cause over 70% of GM’s vehicles to be “micro hybrid” (integrated start/stop). Requiring all new vehicles to be plug in hybrid within, say, 5 years or so is well within the realm of possibility and would have little pushback since plug in hybrids work for literally everyone’s situation (if you can’t plug in, just don’t). And besides the near term benefits, that sets the stage for eliminating gasoline or at least making it very expensive, which today is political suicide. Everyone will desire access to charging, whether just ability to use a 120V outlet, or use destination chargers. Electricity is effectively as cheap as $1/gallon gasoline right now in my area, which means consumers (who might drive across town for a 10 cent per gallon gas price difference) will happily try to plug in whenever they can, making charging no longer a niche thing for 1% of drivers but something everyone wants and therefore easy to standardize for apartments, on-street parking, etc. 5-10 years after that, we can either start mandating new vehicles be completely emissionsfree.

And reduce our use of multi-ton vehicles, because electric or not, the conversion cost of that energy is not cheap. Cars are tools first, far before toys, and they tend to need long, flat surfaces to roll on, which disrupt animal movement and harbor plants that sometimes take over. Driving slower, less often, and on dirt roads seems better for some concerns. Depends on what you care about.

Robotbeat 5y ago
Driving on dirt roads? That is not better for the environment! Requires bigger vehicles, potentially bad for drainage, dirty and dangerous.
- meristohm 5y ago
  You might be right. What are the costs of bitumen/asphalt and oil on the ground over so much area?

barbs 5y ago

Are you suggesting we somehow make our existing gasoline-powered cars electric? I'm not very up-to-date so I didn't think that was possible. Unless you just mean replacing them with electric ones?

Robotbeat 5y ago
It is possible to convert them, but that’s not what I meant. Refuse to buy any new fossil fuel vehicle. I personally think it’d be fairly easy to just require all new vehicles to have plugs. Already, EPA fuel consumption rules have helped cause over 70% of GM’s vehicles to be “micro hybrid” (integrated start/stop). Requiring all new vehicles to be plug in hybrid within, say, 5 years or so is well within the realm of possibility and would have little pushback since plug in hybrids work for literally everyone’s situation (if you can’t plug in, just don’t). And besides the near term benefits, that sets the stage for eliminating gasoline or at least making it very expensive, which today is political suicide. Everyone will desire access to charging, whether just ability to use a 120V outlet, or use destination chargers. Electricity is effectively as cheap as $1/gallon gasoline right now in my area, which means consumers (who might drive across town for a 10 cent per gallon gas price difference) will happily try to plug in whenever they can, making charging no longer a niche thing for 1% of drivers but something everyone wants and therefore easy to standardize for apartments, on-street parking, etc. 5-10 years after that, we can either start mandating new vehicles be completely emissionsfree.