Electric cars are hyped to an almost religious status. Companies, both old and new, from Tesla and Rivian, Ford and Mercedes, all are going electric. However, they are ineffective at solving climate change. We should focus our efforts elsewhere, writes Conor Bronsdon. 

Elon Musk is wrong; Tesla won't save the planet from climate change.

Electric cars might look great in your driveway, but they're also a symbol of a systemic problem: a consumer and car-based approach to addressing transportation's climate impacts. Not only that, they're an ineffective one.

Transportation-related carbon emissions are the top source of US carbon emissions

Transportation-related carbon emissions account for 14% of our global carbon emissions and are the largest source of US carbon emissions at 29%. Therefore, it is crucial that the US cuts our transportation emissions to meet the Paris Climate accords' goal —50% of our 2017 emissions. While the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily lowered some of these transportation emissions in 2020, the long-standing trend is that we've failed to make a dent in our transportation-related emissions – they've stayed all but constant for the past 15 years.

Suppose we fail to address climate change and the air pollution emissions from gas vehicles. In that case, we have significant problems looming: mass species die off, increasing natural disasters, destruction of our fisheries, horrible air pollution, wars over water, and much more. 

With 82% of US emissions in 2018 coming from road vehicles, it’s clear that we need to cut our emissions from cars by taking combustion engine vehicles off the roads as rapidly as we can. The solution that has been popularized for this? Electric cars vs gas vehicles—and electric vehicles don't go far enough. 

___

This is the problem with Tesla; they’re not intent on finding the best solution to our climate crisis

___