In response to the April 5 Mountain Xpress cover story, “All Charged Up: Is Western North Carolina Ready for the Coming Electric Vehicle Surge?” I’d like to offer some important context to this topic of the EV “revolution.”
The Biden administration has set a goal to make half of all cars sold in the U.S. by 2030 to be EV. To meet these goals, it should be noted that an extreme quantity of natural resources will need to be extracted from the Earth, immediately, with very little time for oversight or sustainable strategy.
The global mining industry is rapidly expanding, with tragic ecological and humanitarian consequences. Approximately half a million tons of earth must be exhumed to find the material for one car battery. The metals mining industry is the single largest source of toxic waste in the U.S. (and approximately 80% of all critical minerals mines in the U.S. are within 35 miles of Native lands). Literal tons of toxic fumes are released in the mining process, and millions of tons of groundwater are polluted in order to successfully extract minerals.
In Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, the “Lithium Triangle,” where 60% percent of the world’s lithium is stored, they are experiencing extreme water shortages because of the 2 million tons of water needed for every single ton of lithium. That’s only enough for about 100 EVs. Additionally, in terms of carbon, the amount of CO2 produced in the manufacturing of a typical EV requires that car to be used for eight years to make up for its initial production.
And what about the electricity that runs this “eco-friendly” vehicle? Sixty percent of our electricity comes from coal and natural gas. As India also switches to an EV culture, they are boosting China’s coal production.
At every turn, there is a major externality that needs to be reckoned with. Sixty-five percent of the global supply of solar panels are made at Uyghur slave labor camps in China. Currently, there are an estimated 35,000 children working in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are mining companies bypassing international bans on deep-sea mining and dredging up fragile seabeds.
So, by all means, we can do this EV thing, and perhaps we still should, but hopefully, we can be honest with ourselves about how green it really is.
— Matt McClure
Black Mountain
Part of why I talk about Hydrogen Systems.
Where does electricity come from?
Texas. Now, please stay there.
Are you trying to have a conversation?
Prop Joe
6 mins ago
Texas. Now, please stay there.
https://mountainx.com/opinion/letter-how-green-are-electric-vehicles/#comment-4021723
Disinformation on the Internet is leaking out into “local” media, who could have possibly imagined that?
Online lobbyists for oil, gas, coal, and legacy automotive vendors absolutely love it when we ignore the social, economic, national security, and environmental impacts of extraction, processing, transportation, distribution, and combustion, in one way, non-recyclable, trips to poisoning the Earth’s atmosphere by the inefficient and profligate use of their products.
A broader, more honest conversation about innovative, economical solutions to real problems is overdue. It’s not too late to join the Coalition of the Willing to become prepared for the future.
Nice attempted deflection. Clear miss however with that silly ” but what about this” argument.
The argument that Electric Vehicles do not make sense is based on ignoring that even the current generation, that is rapidly continuing to improve, isn’t better than the costs and benefits of alternatives. Online lobbyists for legacy special interests are deflecting people from reaching that understanding. Some people are fooled, but not everyone.
There’s no debate. Despite their downsides, electric cars are better overall for the environment than gas-powered cars. https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars
The headline should read “How much greener (cleaner, more efficient,..) are Electric Vehicles than Fossil Fueled Vehicles?” or “How much greener are the next generation of Electric Vehicles?”