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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

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Study shows EV owners have bigger carbon footprint than average because they are wealthier (phys.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Maybe EVs are not a comprehensive climate solution??

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

America specifically doesn't want to build sane infrastructure, we've gone too deep on car culture over the last century+. Going out of the way to build self-driving cars rather than running more rail (or even bus, or trolley) is a solution hunting for a problem that shouldn't exist. Especially given how much car prices have sharply increased in the last decade. Nobody will be able to afford personal transport, people will continue to use older cars for longer periods of time, or get into insane mortgage-sized car loans.

...but we want our "independence" and "freedom" dammit! .... /s

Even so, the status quo changes with EVs. You see it with dealerships/shops charging more for simple repairs, manufacturers trying to go to subscription models for basic car features.

So much of the US is car-based:

Regular maintenance at a shop to pay for parts and fluids
The oil industry living at its current large size (it will still need to exist even if we were all EV, until every other product that uses it switches to something else)
Refueling at gas stations that can upsell you on impulse-buy food, drink, smoke, booze
Gas station price wars to spur pointless driving around, pointless media attention (which causes further driving around of media vehicles), pointless arguments and chaos
Supply chains generating every part, widget, and accessory, with the assumption there will be frequent replacement
Training for mechanics and techs on servicing all these convoluted chemical powered mechanical systems
Emissions testing and regulation used by municipalities as a money grab
The engineers paid to design these machines
Tax on fuel and other car consumables
The aftermarket accessory market selling upgrade gizmos to customize, trick out, make louder, make more powerful, make coal-rolling
Even parts theft like catalytic converter theft rings

[–] spidermanchild 4 points 2 months ago

Don't forget about the massive insurance scheme designed to deal with the aftermath of millions of largely preventable collisions and tens of thousands of deaths each year, the regulatory complex, the adverse health impacts and burden on the healthcare industry, and perhaps biggest of all - the infrastructure (and space) needed for all of this unnecessary driving, all of which come at the expense of all other forms of transportation. The scale of the auto industry is mind boggling, especially considering how useless most of it is.