Not So Green: The Negative Aspects of Electric Vehicles
Whether you believe in global warming or not, there are some environmental events that are hard to ignore. Even though it’s not easy to explain the effects of global warming to the average person, it’s easy to understand that the population is consistently growing and the increased use of resources is slowly but surely taking a toll on our planet. We see the effects of global warming through rising sea levels, devastating earthquakes, violent hurricanes or even strange weather events such as blizzards in areas where a blizzard has no business being like we saw in the recent winter storm that hit the US last December.
In an effort to slow down the effects of global warming, the world is trying to make little changes that will hopefully have positive impacts in the long run such as no longer giving out plastic bags in stores. It may seem like a huge inconvenience at times, but plastic bags usually end up in the ocean and that does contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, which makes global warming worse. So to reduce pollution and the world’s collective carbon footprint, many governments have decided that we should try to replace one of the main sources of pollution in the world and that is … cars and all vehicles that consume gas to run.
The idea is to replace all cars with a greener, more environment-friendly solution: electric cars.
Ta-da! Problem solved, right?
Not quite. As we all know, every solution comes with its own set of problems and, despite sounding like the miracle cure for pollution, electric vehicles have their downsides and they may have a shorter shelf life than we may think. Let’s look at how electric vehicles are currently impacting the environment.
Infrastructure
Here at CocaineCompany, we like to keep an open mind, but we have a hard time understanding how this more recent technology can compete with over 100 years of infrastructure dedicated to gas-powered cars.
Some governments have made ambitious promises that will aim to eliminate gas-powered cars within the next decade or so. In fact, Canada and all its provinces want to ban the sales of gas powered cars by 2035. They plan to force car manufacturers to make a percentage of their cars electric and every 5 years or so, that percentage will increase until car manufacturers can only sell electric vehicles. Like I said, it’s an ambitious goal, but it sounds like a pretty political promise you say to get elected.
Have they thought this through? Where is everyone going to park their brand new electric cars? What about the drivers who do not own an electric car? What are they going to do with all the gas stations on every street corner? I mean, shit, they’re building two brand new gas stations in my neighbourhood as I’m writing this.
Let’s say they did think it through and they plan on building all these electric vehicles parking spots, who’s supposed to pay for all that? Taxpayers? With inflation as high as it is now and a recession looming for most countries, increasing taxes for electric vehicle parking when the majority will still own a gas car seems irresponsible.
Shortages
With all the people in the world, it’s common that there’s often not enough to go around. Electric vehicles rely on electricity from power plants and those plants still use fossil fuels, which could create problems for some countries in the world. For instance, California has also mandated a ban on the sale of gasoline vehicles by 2035, however, it may create a problem since California’s power grid struggles to keep things running during the hot summer months with the high electrical demands that air conditioning causes. With the planet getting warmer, so does the need for air conditioning and AC doesn’t like to share. The problem is that last summer, California was forced to institute rolling blackouts to relieve the intense pressure on the power grid. Once again, it feels like the government made a promise, but didn’t think ahead. Now you may find some articles that will say that electric vehicles will in fact help the power grid, but that remains to be proven.
