JeffA:
Where’s this “our oil and gas” coming from? Is there some magic oil pipe near you?
You say climate supporters as if it’s a bad thing. You like breathing diesel particulates to fresh air I suppose? Puts hairs on your chest eh?
It isn’t ‘Climate Supporters’ that much tbh. It’s the carbon tax.
Not even the Carbon Tax either.
It’s the wholesale ‘belief’ that electric vehicles are the future, and there’s no ecological damage caused by electric vehicles.
So there’s no ‘carbon tax’ on electric vehicles
There is no direct air pollution, created by electric vehicles. We all know that.
But the electrikery to charge them comes from the national grid.
The National Grid gets its electrikery from power stations. Be they coal, gas, nuclear, wind(farm), solar or water powered power stations.
All of these now use rare earth magnets in their generators. Due to their high magnetic qualities, they make the generator more efficient.
For one thing, rare means - not widely available. How long are they going to last?
The way these rare earth metals are mined is horrendous to the Worlds ecology, let alone the local ecology.
These same rare earth metals are used in the electric motors of electric vehicles.
Then there’s the question of ‘recovering’ rare earth metals and recycling lithium ion batteries.
There’s also a similar question about ‘spent’ nuclear fuel, coolant water and other waste products. And the old defunct nuclear power stations.
All of these are being ‘addressed’. But the answers are still 10s of years away. The next generations problem, we don’t have the technology yet.
An aside. One anti-Brexit arguement I’ve heard repeatedly is, “You’ve wrecked our childrens future”.
Well these rare earth metals, battery recycling, nuclear waste disposal questions being left to “our children” to answer is, I think, going to give them much more of a headache than Brexit ever will, World Wide.
Gas powered generation, is still fossil fuel burning. Still pumping out huge amounts of CO2, still polluting the atmosphere. It’s just that you/we don’t see it, because it’s happening way over there, not right here in front of us. Hydrogen isn’t the answer to that either. It takes two tonnes of fossil gas to produce one tonne of hydrogen, by splitting it from H2O using electricity. Which then is less power dense, only equivalent to about 0.75 tonnes of fossil gas, from the initial 2 tonnes.
To charge all these electric vehicles, the actual grid of the National Grid will need to be doubled. The vast majority are going to be charging overnight, all at the same time. At the moment, the National Grid is just under it’s max capacity, it has very little leeway for increased demand. That means, either increasing the diameter of the wires on pylons, everywhere. Or increasing the numbers of pylons, probably a bit of both. More pylons with slightly thicker wire. Power generation will have to double. More power stations, or wind farms.
I remember, only a couple of years ago. On a perfect wind conditions day, Britains Wind Farms produces 33% of that days electricity demand. It was headline news. This was countered by wee nippy, in Scotland. She said, On that day, Scotlands Wind Farms produced 100% of Scotlands electricity demand, but it was all fed into the UK National Grid. I don’t know how correct wee nippy was, and she’ll use any excuse to promote Scottish Nationalism, so take it with a pinch of salt.
But the point of that is, Scotland will have to double it’s wind farms, to keep up with car charging demands. They’re everywhere and getting bigger.
I don’t mind wind turbines. But almost the whole country covered is going to be a bit much.
To cut this enormous post short. I think all this ‘electric vehicles will be our saviour’, is a load of rubbish.
The only pollution saved is the pollution right in front of our noses, and not going up it.
But the pollution and ecological damage caused elsewhere, all over the world, is just as bad as the particulates we aren’t breathing.
Just one other point. When the British Government looks at Ecological Damage, to award ecology friendly points. It looks at Ecological Damage caused in Europe or America. It doesn’t consider Ecological Damage caused in China, or Bolivia, or anywhere else in the world. But Ecological Damage is still harming the whole world, wherever it is happening. And wind and water don’t respect any borders. Look at the Sargasso Sea. It used to be known for it’s large sea weed mats. It’s now known for it’s huge discarded-plastic slick.
. Feel free to educate me.
