Giddyup, My Little Electric Vehicle

    Make no mistake, converting to electric vehicles would reduce our carbon footprint. That being said, however, it will not be enough to adequately reduce greenhouse emissions.

   In the simplistic world we live in -- where rumors are our greatest source of information -- there are those who believe solving the climate change problem is as simple as wiping gasoline cars off the road and replacing them with electric vehicles. Not so fast, good buddy; you're wrong.

   Alternately, there are those who believe electric cars are worse for the climate than gasoline vehicles because of the power plant emissions incurred in manufacturing and charging the batteries. Hold on, pilgrim, you, too, are wrong. That rumor isn't much on truth -- it's a myth.

   Any car you put on the road is probably going to be made of metal. So it will take 7 to 10 tons of CO2 emissions to build the car body whether it is gasoline or electric. But, then there is the battery in the electric car. You will need to mine the lithium and such, and manufacture it into a battery. So, tack on another 9 tons of CO2 emissions for the electric car. At this point, the EV is twice as expensive as the combustion-engine model.

   And, then there are the greenhouse gases expended in refining the gasoline for the gasoline car and creating the electricity to recharge the battery of the electric car. Believe it or not, the amount to recharge the battery is leaning towards being twice what it costs to produce the gasoline that powers the combustion-engine car.

   Now things are even looking worse for the EV.

   It is not until you finally factor in tailpipe emissions that the carbon footprint of the gasoline car sails way past that of the electric vehicle. Of all the greenhouse gases it takes for a gasoline car, 74 percent of them come in the form of tailpipe emissions -- and at this point the gas-guzzler has more than twice the carbon footprint of its electric counterpart.

   And, while the tailpipe emissions thing is not going to go away, the other things causing C02 emissions from the automobile can be reduced. If you replace coal-powered power plants with solar or wind, that part of the CO2 footprint is drastically reduced. The CO2 emissions needed to manufacture the car body, and to refine the oil into gasoline, and to recharge the batteries -- most of that will disappear.

   That leaves only the tailpipe emissions. And, obviously, the EV has no tailpipe emissions and the combustion-engine car has a lot.

   Plus, the batteries of the EV need not just be junked when they expire. The magnesium, lithium, etc., can be recycled.

   Just the same, sweeping all gasoline cars off the road and replacing them with EVs is not going to be enough to solve the greenhouse emissions problem. Such things as combating the deforestation of trees, and reducing methane production from farm animals need to be added to the equation. So while the plan is to have gasoline and diesel cars completely off the roads by 2050, that will not be enough.

   As we work to lessen the carbon footprint of cars, there are other efforts we should (and are) endeavoring to implement. Carpooling hasn't worked very well, but we should not give up on that. Using mass transit instead of everyone driving their own cars would be a big benefit.

   But, how about this: If it is cost of producing a car that is such a big concern, how about we drive our cars until they drop? Today's cars are in circulation for 15-20 years. It would seem most of those cars could simply be repaired instead of junked, and the life of a car might double. That would reduce by half the need for manufacturing new vehicles. And, that would have an impact on our greenhouse emissions.

(Index -- Climate change info)