Now do iron and aluminum mine externalities for ICE cars, which carry hundreds of pounds extra of those metals, plus much rarer cataysts like platinum and rubidium. The business community keeps quoting one white paper written by Volvo on this, but of course, no one actually read that paper because the authors saw fit to exclude the metals used in engines and transmissions in ICE cars when comparing to EVs. There is so much bullshit math on both sides of this argument, no one is realizing how we are getting distracted from major sources of pollution that continue unfettered like shipping, air travel and cement production.
Again, our proposal isn’t that we should cover all of this land in solar panels, or that it could easily power the world on its own. We don’t account for the fact that we’d need energy storage and other options to make sure that power is available where and when it’s needed (not just when the sun is shining). We’re just trying to get a sense of perspective for how much electricity could be produced by using that land in more efficient ways.
Now do lithium mine externalities.
Now do iron and aluminum mine externalities for ICE cars, which carry hundreds of pounds extra of those metals, plus much rarer cataysts like platinum and rubidium. The business community keeps quoting one white paper written by Volvo on this, but of course, no one actually read that paper because the authors saw fit to exclude the metals used in engines and transmissions in ICE cars when comparing to EVs. There is so much bullshit math on both sides of this argument, no one is realizing how we are getting distracted from major sources of pollution that continue unfettered like shipping, air travel and cement production.
ICE engines are mostly cast aluminum, which can be recycled trivially and indefinitely with renewable energy and no environmental harm.
Lithium batteries cannot be recycled without environmental harm.
Biofuels (due to inefficiency) are net negative emitters.