this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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Fuck Cars

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[–] dadarobot@lemmy.sdf.org 96 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean, while we still have so much car centric infrastructure in the states, they can be a useful transition.

I say this as someone who primarily commutes by bicycle btw. Public transit in my area is piss poor. Unpredictable buses, no light rail. Hell there aren't even sidewalks everywhere.

My wife recently got a fully electric car, and I support that move. She is not ready to go car free. But at least we are not necessarily burning fossil fuels to power trips to the grocery store. I think the closest power plants to us are nuclear and hydroelectric. Im sure there's a coal plant in the mix too tho.

Would never give elon a cent of our money though

[–] anothercatgirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 months ago

I think people who commute farish in a car daily should be first to get electric cars, and then people who use cars less than daily for groceries or something, and lastly people like me who drive in the same town once a month or less.

[–] spacesatan@lazysoci.al 45 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I can't buy a metro line for my city, I can make sure my next car is electric. Buying an electric car is morally superior to buying a gas car.

[–] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 7 points 3 months ago

You wouldn't download a metro line. Or would you?

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 39 points 3 months ago (5 children)

It's better to transition private cars now because that's going to take years in and of itself and it's relatively easy and fast to swap out the centralized power plants for greener options later. Swap out one dirty power plant for a green plant and everything electric connected to it is instantly greener in turn.

Even if the US went all in on public infrastructure today, it would still take decades

Not giving any money to Musk though, there are other options.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You're so right...using electricity to drive here in Texas is so much less carbon intensive than gasoline powered engines it's not even close. Switching to an EV instantly makes a huge difference in your carbon footprint

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[–] No1@aussie.zone 38 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

The main attractor to me is that with an electric car, you could theoretically be energy independent. Same goes with an ebike.

Eg, Solar -> battery -> EV/ebike

No need to be relying on rotten dinosaurs dug up out of wherever, with a million middle men and taxes.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I agree with you in spirit, but the reality is you would not actually be energy independent. The parts that you're talking about, for the car and the batteries and repairing the car, those are going to be produced somehow. So even if your fuel is produced by solar panels, there are still fossil fuels involved in the manufacture of everything. That's still a massive improvement over burning gas while you drive.

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[–] Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oil and gas has its hooks in almost every facet of our lives unfortunately and our absolute reliance on fossil fuels won't end even if all our ICE cars were instantaneously converted to EVs. Paints, rubbers, resins, soaps, fibers/clothing, plastics, adhesives, dyes, weaponry, electronic semiconductors, building materials, healthcare/pharmaceuticals, etc are made with oils and gas in process and material. Nearly every part of my "acoustic" bicycle is also made with the help of fossil fuels on top of any used for transport on top of any used to create the food I eat to power it.

Though, 99% reliant on fossil fuels is still better than 100% since that's about all the power we have as regular people who have no direct say on global or domestic policy.

[–] buzz86us@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Exactly we also need to work on materials.. Federalizing the legalization of cannabis would go a long way into fixing the materials industry. Plastics need to fully be taken out of the supply chain for packaging, and replaced with biodegradable hemp based plastics. Polyester also needs to be removed from the clothing supply chain. I have several shirts that are hemp cotton blends that are amazing. China is beating is on hemp production.. We should be crushing this gap.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 32 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

To paraphrase Alan Fisher, electric cars fail to solve the biggest problem with cars: The fact that they're still cars.

[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 24 points 3 months ago

I generally agree with this sentiment: fuck cars in general, but we can't discount the reduction in oil demand associated with EVs. Transportation accounts for 50%ish of total emissions. That's a big piece of the pie in terms of emissions reduction. Further, storage and reduction don't translate at a 1:1 ratio. If you reduce, you're much better off than storing in terms of carbon.

Do we need a much better transportation system? Absofuckingloutley. EVs can help transition, at least in the short term but I see hybrid of trains/buses and micromobility as the path forward

[–] kaffiene@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago (4 children)

The car industry didn't want EVs. Much of it still doesn't

[–] geissi@feddit.org 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They prefer EVs over public transport.

[–] kaffiene@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Yeah, that's true

[–] SsxChaos@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No company in the world supports neither EV nor anything eco-friendly and if there ever is it won't last because of corporate greed

[–] kaffiene@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Chinese are creating a bunch of affordable EVs which could move the dial on climate but the west is generally blocking them via tarrifs

[–] ChrisWere@toot.wales 3 points 3 months ago

@kaffiene @SsxChaos Climate change aside. The move to EVs would disempower the oil lobby, which has caused untold geopolitical damage within our lifetimes.

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[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 months ago

buying a tesla feeds the orange

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago

You think the car industry needs saved? How so? Gas or electric, there's never been a lull in people purchasing cars. Quite the opposite, most of the time. It's not like cars were on a production decline before ev's started rolling in and saved the day with the few percentage of car shoppers buying them.

[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 2 points 3 months ago

Tesla's thinking duh

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Seems like it's an outdated opinion, or a pro-ICE car one. Fossil fuel is here to stay and a lot of car maker is slowing down the electric car adaptation and goes into hybrid instead. EV will not save the car industry unless countries ban ICE car, which might be a few decades away globally from actually materialise. There's still infrastructure lacking for people to charge their car, there's still battery fire for them to worry about, and there's still range anxiety.

And despite all that, people who decided to purchase an EV 5 or so years ago does help to push the thing to wider market, and that's a good thing. Of course it's better if people swap to multimodal commuting, but right now a lot of places doesn't have that privilege.

In general, EV alone isn't gonna save the planet, there's shit tons of thing to do before we move toward that goal, and EV is part of that thing.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Fossil fuel is here to stay

Um, as a nonrenewable resource, I think we can disagree.

We will run out, and sooner than most people think.

The problem we should be trying to solve is how can we still manufacture things, without fossil fuels?

All the green technology today still depends on fossil fuels in their manufacturing. If we can't figure out alternatives, and fast, it won't matter what kind of vehicle you use. Even bikes will be obsolete if you can't make tires or lubricant.

[–] spacesatan@lazysoci.al 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is nonsense. We find oil faster than we use it most years, proven reserves have been an upward trend basically forever. If we completely stopped looking for oil we still have about 50 years left at the current rate and we have bigger problems if we haven't slowed consumption in 50 years.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

I didn't say that we'll run out in our lifetime, but we will run out. It's a finite resource.

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[–] Baylahoo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While I completely agree with you, consumers are slowly moving that way, regulations are slowly moving that way, and costs of fuel will eventually move that way quicker and quicker. Either the car industry listens because people will jump ship to the brands that embrace it or go to the potentially more sustainable and environmentally friendly public transportation. At this point it's a smart competitive decision to start building the R&D, manufacturing, and supply chains for widespread EVs. You don't want to be on the back foot when it does become necessity.

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah, there is transition but the transition has been slowing down due to lack of demand. People prefer hybrid/plugin than full electric. If the pain point hasn't been solved, we wouldn't see too much of a transition in this decade.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

Not everyone runs on moral superiority.

[–] houseofleft@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Honestly moral superiority needs to get taken out of climate change as a whole. It's a global issue that needs political solutions. Nobody's individual actions are gonna change their nation's heating systems from gas, grids energy make up to solar, or billionaires to climate activists.

[–] Sarcasmo220@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago

As an EV owner, and I approve this message

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