this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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I saw a post the other day here that was saying something along the lines of "because china's car market is swapping to EV's we might be at the tipping point for climate change either in 2024 or 2025"
Which if true would be really nice. I have no idea of the validity of that claim, but i just wanted to add it. Maybe we aren't so screwed? Fingers crossed I guess :3
There's growing research into positive tipping points for the climate. Biden's historic investment into renewables put a finger on the scales tipping them for significantly more solar and wind investment, which will of course reduce the cost of building solar and wind and soon enough the federal government's finger won't even be needed on the scale to make solar and wind cost effective to build.
Other decarbonization efforts like pushing for more bike infrastructure leading to fewer car trips and more bike trips, and shifting cars to electricity rather than gasoline also have tipping points where it will make far more sense to do the cheaper thing that happens to be better for the climate than not
So why don't you at least try to run the numbers. Takes like 2 minutes. Total output, output per car, number of cars - it's not rocket science.
Need to factor in the carbon cost of constructing a new vehicle vs running a less efficient one for longer. Disposal and possible recycling of old vehicles, also not free. Upgrades to the charging grid and construction of charging locations for all those new vehicles. Brakes and tires also cause significant pollution and are still an issue no matter the power unit of the car.
Then compare all that to building trams and light rail in metro areas instead of building cities to accommodate cars, roads and parking lots instead of humans.
Yeah, I could have, but it would have taken longer than 5 minutes of work, and I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to take all the factors into account. I was posting this while taking a quick break etc.
I was just trying to add some hope to an otherwise gloomy topic.
But you're right, I'm sure with some effort I could probably have at least a ballpark idea.