183

Oxford Professor: Cycling is 10 times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities (theconversation.com)

submitted 6 days ago by tree@lemmy.ml to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

56 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27953268

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] durruticore@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago

One question, asking mostly out of ignorance. Aren't EVs not supposed to be a long term solution, because of all the rare earth materials going into the batteries (lithium neodymium etc) I know they're still used for other things, and they're less polluting than fossil fuel vehicles, but aren't there better options?

[-] Enjoyer_of_Games@hexbear.net 3 points 5 days ago

There is no long term plan, there's barely a short term plan.

Have to hope EV's are a stop gap to real public transport and city design (highly unlikely) or that batteries that don't require rare earth materials are developed (possible but not given).

[-] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 1 points 5 days ago

I'm not entirely an expert, but I think there are definitely issues in the modern supply chain. The worst is probably cobalt, which is necessary for the main types of Li batteries and is almost exclusively mined by child slaves. This is because of imperialism though and not a fault of the technology. There are also alternatives to cobalt although again the most widespread and easy to make now do rely on it. Its still relatively rare of a metal that alternatives are necessary.

Rare earths are not so rare as to impede widespread adoption. They are mostly controlled by China which is one of the problems for the US right now, and why trump wants to annex or somehow control any piece of land that he sniffs rare earths at (Ukraine, Greenland are said to have deposits).

Long term, learning to recycle these components is essential. I'm sure China is doing the most research in these regards.

EVs are only one part of it. Mass transit is the best way to cut vehicle emissions. But small form factor EVs like this use very little energy and efficiently accomplish tasks like local delivery compared to a car. And even with some of the supply chain issues for EVs it is still essential for the climate that we get to net zero, yesterday.