Are electric cars better than gasoline-powered cars? Here is the question we explore in my new documentary “Electric Vehicles: Good, Bad, and Ugly.”
Do you agree with former President Joe Biden, who calls climate change a “threat threat” or agree with the late physicist Freeman Dyson, who dismisses Al Gore and its “inconvenient truth” as “bad science,” and the question remains: It's still: Electric cars on Planet Earth are better than “gas Guzzlers”? [emphasis, links added]
After all, energy generated by fossil fuels is needed to produce electric vehicles and then ship them to dealers. The electricity required for charging comes mainly from electricity generated by fossil fuels.
Electric cars are a technology win, with incredible features. They are quiet, fast and fun. Although the autonomous driving function is not foolproof, it may save lives because human driving errors are more common. (There are some gasoline-powered cars with similar functions.)
There are concerns about driving range and the availability of charging stations with long-term drives.
Currently, electric cars may be more expensive than gasoline cars of similar sizes. Tax preferential measures are still available, but may be reduced, if not phased out at some point.
With more expensive purchase prices, the requirement to buy electric cars or limit the sales of gas cars will hurt those who are not very good.
Then there is the Chinese factor. The computer chips required for electric vehicles come from China disproportionately.
Minerals (lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese) in batteries are mined, processed and manufactured in places controlled by China or in China, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Take cobalt in Congo.
Two years ago, NPR wrote “How 'Modern Slavery in Congo’s ’How Powered the Rechargeable Battery Economy.” Its work is by Siddharth Kara, author of Cobalt Red. Kara said:
People (including children) are working from humans, grinding, and deteriorating conditions. They use pickups, shovels, a series of steel bars to stretch, invade and scroun the earth with ditches, pits, pits and tunnels to collect cobalt and feed formal supply chains to make it toxic and breathable with touch and breathable – a few (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) (small) ( Mothers with babies are all breathing this toxic cobalt dust.
As for comments about “Electric Vehicles: Good, Bad, and Ugly,” Paul Bond, a former senior journalist for “Newsweek” and “Hollywood Reporter”, wrote:
“Larry Elder’s latest documentary…first and first…provocative claim: Electric cars may be bigger than gasoline-powered cars, they rely on child labor to open doors for privacy intrusions and hackers.… Whether you’re waving a trump flag or preaching a clean life, the old man’s movie needs a second look at the car.
Reading and rest in town
