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The concept still confuses me But one thing I am not confused about is that I can't shake this gut feeling that electric cars are going to doom us as fast or f
by readonthegoapp 5y ago
The concept still confuses me
But one thing I am not confused about is that I can't shake this gut feeling that electric cars are going to doom us as fast or faster than any other 'solution' we come up with
One aspect of Jevons is that electric cars make driving cheaper
Which is good
If you want a society that drives more
E-cars would also indirectly make electricity cheaper -- thru tech innovation, thus driving up demand for electricity, this causing us to ultimately use more electricity and all fuels.
The other rationale or argument against e-cars is that it is a 'tech solutionist' answer to our global warming problems
That is, there is a theory that we can 'just' employ technology to fix climate collapse
So, if an e-car saves the planet each time you drive it, then you had better drive it _a lot_.
But this looks at the single unit measure of consumption, not the systemic / epidemiological / holistic view of what e-cars are doing to us.
So, is there any more movement yet for a carbon tax since THE DISASTER REPORT came out?
Maybe its still too early.
But the Union of Concerned Scientists keep saying e-cars are better, cradle to grave, so that's that I guess.
I just feel like we are all going to burn on hell -- aka earth -- by not thinking a bit more deeply about these things.
I've heard people say, "if the rest of the oil comes up, we are all dead."
I believe it.
But is there any real push to stop drilling, etc?
Don't worry about it -- get yourself an e-car and everything will be alright.
Jevons would say that to prevent the ill effects of the paradox from kicking in, you'd have to increase the tax on electricity for every efficiency gain in generation and use that you experienced -- if you wanted to drive down electricity use.
For us, practically, I would guess that would mean for every bit of e-efficiency we gained, up the taxes on / lower the subsidies for oil/gas/methane/etc, and the opposite for 'green' energy production and use.
- Gibbon1 5y agoI feel like what will stop drilling is wholesale banning of gasoline/diesel cars and forced abandonment of natural gas infrastructure. Basically why I don't believe in carbon taxes. But yeah electric cars are still cars. And if they become cheaper to buy and operate than regular cars you'll see a lot more them. So while some externalities like air pollution and CO2 emissions may go down. Issues with congestion and inefficient housing may increase.