The electric car as a talisman of false hope

Re:The electric car as a talisman of false hope by jacquesm on Friday August 16, 2019 @08:28AM (#20714451)

That's a pretty uncharitable reading of TFA. My take-away is this: if we use the electric car as a way to persuade ourselves that our 'way of life' is safe if only we all switched to electric vehicles then we are ignoring the elephant in the room: it is our way of life that is the problem, not how we transport ourselves.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The electric car as a talisman of false hope by Denzel on Friday August 16, 2019 @11:12PM (#20721738)

I actually strove to be charitable in my interpretation. Sure, his heart may be in the right place, but his framing is not. And I feel like he's doing more to invite analysis paralysis than actually help people make decisions.

  if we use the electric car as a way to persuade ourselves
  that our 'way of life' is safe if only we all switched to
  electric vehicles then we are ignoring the elephant in
  the room

Who is doing that?

I'm genuinely asking for sources because I don't know of anyone that is pushing electric cars as the solution. Not Tesla, nor people who buy Teslas, nor people who buy electric cars.

I want sources because all I can do is speak about the individuals I've come across. In my life, some of the people that have bought electric vehicles also:

- Advocate in local government for bike lane buildout in their cities.

- Adopt vegetarian or vegan diets.

- Ask their employers to buy carbon offsets for any work-related flights.

- Push schools, hospitals, governments, apartment complexes, etc. to transition what they can to solar or wind energy. (My brother's HS didn't have solar panels, now they have solar+batteries providing some X% of their energy needs.)

The list goes on.

Yes, I agree with the author, electric vehicles aren't the full solution. No, I don't agree that they're a talisman of false hope. That's pretty strong, inflammatory wording. And no, I don't agree with the author's decision to set his article in a negative framing. To me, that does more to invite analysis paralysis than a positive framing would.

If he (or anyone) knows a better route, then please offer CTA for a program where individuals can pay $X for a guaranteed Y benefit towards addressing climate change. Electric vehicles offer exactly that CTA. Why didn't the author?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The electric car as a talisman of false hope by justin66 on Friday August 16, 2019 @08:56AM (#20714676)

A "way of life" isn't something you flip a switch on, it's a conglomeration of factors which might or might not be made to change. I think that's the parent poster's point.

[ Parent | on HN ]