Electric Cars Won't Solve Climate Change
Electric cars might look great in your driveway, but they're a symbol of a systemic problem: an ineffective, car-based approach to addressing transportation's climate impacts.
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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 ineffective solution to climate change.
Transportation-related carbon emissions are the top source of U.S. carbon emissions
Transportation-related carbon emissions account for 14% of our global carbon emissions and are the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions at 29%. Therefore, it is crucial that the U.S. 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.