Are there aspects of your daily life that you know contribute to your carbon footprint but you are unwilling to compromise to change them? In other words, what about your life is “off the table” when it comes to carbon emissions? It's OK to admit it- we all have these cherished behaviors!
Off the Table? >
Off the table.
I feel like many people cant give up driving to reduce their carbon footprint. Maybe they have a long commute or simply live far away from either school or work, such as in my case. School is about a 20 minute drive away from where i live, which is on a farm, and i dont have any other ways i can get around.
The reason why driving is so prevalent is because of how convenient it is, but if public transportation was much more developed in countries, then it would most likely go down.
I think with effective public transportation, most people can accomplish commutes to school and work without a car. In the more rare instances where people are living in such low density or near small towns that would not justify a public transit system (like robin), then electric cars would be a good alternative. Those cars will need to be less expensive in order for most people to afford them.
I live in a small town, 30 minutes from my school, and there is public transportation but it goes a small route three times a day, not on the time when I can use it so I use a car. Public transportation needs to be more accessible in small towns, but also, if there are not many people who use public transportation in the small towns then maybe it would pollute more? Because there is a big bus that pollutes more than a small car, driving around with very few people in it. As for the electric cars, I like them but I have been hearing that it is not very nature friendly when it needs to discard the battery, and I feel like no one talks about it.
Hi Tara
You're right about batteries being polluting, and also (another thing not much talked about) is the destructive mining practices --often in poor countries-- that go into making the batteries.
Another issue often ignored is *where the electricity comes from*. If the electricity that you are using to charge your car is coming from a coal fired power plant, then you might as well be burning coal directly in your engine.
The flip side of this is that electrifying everything then means that once we green the electrical grid, then all of our appliances, cars, lights, home heating etc., will be running off of green power. It's a more straight forward societal solution thatn trying to come up with greener fuels per se.
Here's an article from CNBC that summarizes these complex issues and has some useful links