Yes, electric vehicles are a better way to meet our carbon emissions goals and to somewhat reduce air pollution than gas powered cars. That's it. They're still cars. They still sit in traffic; they still require an absurd amount of paved space; they still contribute to air pollution (they're heavier, so their tires release more micro-particulates into the air than regular vehicles); they still kill people; they're expensive to buy - the existing subsidies to make them more affordable are complex (tax rebates - really? Oh no problem, let me just call my accountant to handle that); they widen the social divide between sophisticated rich people doing their part in saving the environment and the rest of us because EVs are complex and expensive to operate and maintain because they are covered in needless amounts of proprietary tech and touch screens; all of which requires extracting obscene amounts of lithium, which displaces and exploits native people whose lands are blessed with the material; they are a flashy, inequitable, insufficient solution to our transportation problems.
I know that this is America, and that if we can't consume our way out of a problem then we simply won't do it, but we're running out of time. We are seeing the effects of climate change on our lives. We are still obsessed with being the hero of the story, as long as the hero has all the latest gadgets and technology, as long as we can turn it into an expanded cinematic universe. We don't care about your every day heroes humbly doing their part, walking, biking or taking transit because that is the way they can get to work. We ignore ancient wisdom in favor of something we can own. Because if we can't own it, then it's not worthy of our attention. Our ever diminishing attention.
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Because I'm unable to hold all of these truths in me without doing something, I will continue to dedicating my life to supporting sustainable forms of transportation, and to preserve and take back as much nature from the claws of the battery-powered automobile. And because I must go on, I must find sources of optimism. When the transportation realm fails me, I look elsewhere. In general, I believe this good practice - upon stating it, it really becomes obvious, but specialization narrows our focus, and it becomes difficult to find alternative solutions. Recently I've found hope in forest management practices to help fight forest fires. Indigenous people practiced prescribed burns in the forest to ensure that plants that can catch fire easily (and therefore reach temperatures high enough to burn larger trees) are kept at bay. Indigenous people felt a connection to the forests, and understood their place within nature. When colonizers took control of the land (to phrase it mildly), all their eyes could see upon looking at the forest was the raw materials for industry. Our settler relationship to the forest has mostly been an extractive one, whether we seek to profit from timber, or to get a story out of it to tell the folks back in the city. Despite this, great portions of our forests remain unexploited, and there are humans who care to form a connection back to it.
With the onset of fire seasons in the Northwest, there has been renewed interest in prescribed burning practices to help our forests make it through the hot and dry months of summer. After all, when Indigenous people were the sole stewards of the land, forest fires did not reach the scale of our contemporary fires. Human-caused climate change and poor forest management practices are responsible for our fire seasons. No amount of technological advancements come close to preventing forest fires as much as prescribed burning. We've had the answer to this problem all along, we just chose to ignore it. And such is the case in transportation. Are EVs better than gas-powered cars? Yes. If you're able to, should you make the switch? Again, yes. But should we make it our central policy to dig ourselves out of transportation-based carbon emissions? No, we don't need to do that. Walking, biking and transit have a larger impact on reducing our carbon emissions, and they can do it more equitably than EVs ever could. We've known this for generations. We must focus on active transportation and public transit. Enough with the snake oil. And enough with focusing blame on drivers as well. People aren't addicted to driving a car, they simply don't have alternatives that can compete with a car's convenience. A flashier car won't save us.
By Alan De Anda-Hall
Sources:
Electric vehicles are good for emissions, bad for advancing equity
https://t4america.org/2021/11/10/electric-vehicles-and-equity/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=86d6ac55-79a0-4eb0-8a24-e583086f9853
More smoke from prescribed forest burning could be on its way to Oregon
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/02/22/more-smoke-from-prescribed-forest-burning-could-be-on-its-way-to-oregon/
This is a really strong post. You did a nice job of tying together a bunch of different things that I agree with! I can't help but feel like we mostly solved urban transportation back in the 19th century with subways and people-oriented walkable cities. The fact that so many older European cities are the models we look to is a testament to this. I almost wrote an op-ed about how EVs are a stopgap solution at best, but one that is being compromised by capitalist competition between manufacturers (especially the ones whose CEOs like to go to space for fun). Like I said, really great post and I appreciate how you connected the dots between a bunch of different issues!
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