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> Electric vehicles tend to produce fewer emissions over their life cycles than equivalent vehicles powered by fossil fuels, but the framing often used by gover

> Electric vehicles tend to produce fewer emissions over their life cycles than equivalent vehicles powered by fossil fuels, but the framing often used by government and industry that they are "zero emissions" is misleading. > Unlike a conventional vehicle whose emissions come from burning fossil fuels, a greater share of an EV's emissions come from its production; more specifically, its battery. This is the side of the EV that often doesn't make it into the ad campaigns. while no greenhouse gas emissions directly come from EVs, they run on electricity that is, in large part, still produced from fossil fuels in many parts of the world. Thats the real side that doesnt make it into the ad campaigns (and yes, Canada is one of the better countries out there for Energy mix)

washbrain 4y ago
Even if they ran entirely on solar, cars still pollute. Dust from your tires, for instance, has a noticable impact the fish populations. Electric cars are heavy and put more strain on roads. Battery chemistry can be difficult to cleanly recycle. EVs are great, and I'd love to see them replace ICE cars, but they are not enough. We need to rethink our dependence on the car.
- Melting_Harps 4y ago
  > EVs are great, and I'd love to see them replace ICE cars, but they are not enough. We need to rethink our dependence on the car. Isn't it telling when the defacto figure head of EV is forcing people back into the office while jet-setting around the World on his own private jet, and having more kids as time goes on if if EV alone were real issue? It's a total lack of conviction to actually disrupt the status quo from which they benefit from. This article [0] outlines what really works rather well: economic incentives. Anything else is PR and window dressing. If tech really wants to do something that matters to that end, it's not biyung a P100 S, they should really reflect on whether building or maintaining another CRUD for a 100K+ really matters at all? And what they could help build to incentivize and advance WFH from tools so that more Industry can transition out of that system in order to reduce and curb unnecessary emissions of GHG. Obviously you cannot transition everything to WFH, but just focusing on the amount that was during COVID would be enough to offset a lot of the problem. Everything else seems to be getting there, it is getting close to it solving a lot of the issues if we put the right incentives in place and the only real impediment seems to be political which is tied to propping up needless business models that only contribute to this problem to the detriment of everyone on this Planet. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32284453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32284453
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    > This article [0] outlines what really works rather well This article really sums up the solution - consume less than you generate - get your 100k car, and spend an extra 10k on a roof of solar panels and then you are really doing your bit for the planet.
    - Melting_Harps 4y ago
      > This article really sums up the solution - consume less than you generate - get your 100k car, and spend an extra 10k on a roof of solar panels and then you are really doing your bit for the planet. You're not seeing the forest from the trees, I'm focused on the fact that a life-time of conditioning of austere-like consumption habits can be undone when the financial incentives have significantly changed. Buying an EV is a discretionary purchase and I have no opinion on why or why not someone would need one; but it's the fact that Human's are unlikely to accept a paradigm shift unless they have a compelling reason to do so beyond 'you're killing the Planet' rhetoric; it falls on deaf ears and breeds apathy anything else is quickly swept under the rug and business as usual continues.
kitsunesoba 4y ago
Even so, power plants are massively more efficient than any combustion engine, even taking transmission losses into account, so it’s still a net gain. Additionally, EVs become more clean along with the grid they’re connected to, whereas ICE vehicles will forever be as dirty as they were the day they rolled off the lot.
pohl 4y ago
Still, centralizing the energy production is an architectural win that is well worth the effort put into refactoring. It decouples the devices from the means of energy production, making it easier to swap that out later. It’s basically branch-by-abstraction: https://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/BranchByAbstraction.html https://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/BranchByAbstraction.html

washbrain 4y ago

Even if they ran entirely on solar, cars still pollute. Dust from your tires, for instance, has a noticable impact the fish populations. Electric cars are heavy and put more strain on roads. Battery chemistry can be difficult to cleanly recycle. EVs are great, and I'd love to see them replace ICE cars, but they are not enough. We need to rethink our dependence on the car.

Melting_Harps 4y ago
> EVs are great, and I'd love to see them replace ICE cars, but they are not enough. We need to rethink our dependence on the car. Isn't it telling when the defacto figure head of EV is forcing people back into the office while jet-setting around the World on his own private jet, and having more kids as time goes on if if EV alone were real issue? It's a total lack of conviction to actually disrupt the status quo from which they benefit from. This article [0] outlines what really works rather well: economic incentives. Anything else is PR and window dressing. If tech really wants to do something that matters to that end, it's not biyung a P100 S, they should really reflect on whether building or maintaining another CRUD for a 100K+ really matters at all? And what they could help build to incentivize and advance WFH from tools so that more Industry can transition out of that system in order to reduce and curb unnecessary emissions of GHG. Obviously you cannot transition everything to WFH, but just focusing on the amount that was during COVID would be enough to offset a lot of the problem. Everything else seems to be getting there, it is getting close to it solving a lot of the issues if we put the right incentives in place and the only real impediment seems to be political which is tied to propping up needless business models that only contribute to this problem to the detriment of everyone on this Planet. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32284453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32284453
- shapefrog 4y ago
  > This article [0] outlines what really works rather well This article really sums up the solution - consume less than you generate - get your 100k car, and spend an extra 10k on a roof of solar panels and then you are really doing your bit for the planet.
  - Melting_Harps 4y ago
    > This article really sums up the solution - consume less than you generate - get your 100k car, and spend an extra 10k on a roof of solar panels and then you are really doing your bit for the planet. You're not seeing the forest from the trees, I'm focused on the fact that a life-time of conditioning of austere-like consumption habits can be undone when the financial incentives have significantly changed. Buying an EV is a discretionary purchase and I have no opinion on why or why not someone would need one; but it's the fact that Human's are unlikely to accept a paradigm shift unless they have a compelling reason to do so beyond 'you're killing the Planet' rhetoric; it falls on deaf ears and breeds apathy anything else is quickly swept under the rug and business as usual continues.

kitsunesoba 4y ago

Even so, power plants are massively more efficient than any combustion engine, even taking transmission losses into account, so it’s still a net gain. Additionally, EVs become more clean along with the grid they’re connected to, whereas ICE vehicles will forever be as dirty as they were the day they rolled off the lot.

pohl 4y ago

Still, centralizing the energy production is an architectural win that is well worth the effort put into refactoring. It decouples the devices from the means of energy production, making it easier to swap that out later. It’s basically branch-by-abstraction: https://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/BranchByAbstraction.html https://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/BranchByAbstraction.html