media

Electric cars: Boom or bust?

September 25, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Media coverage of electric cars in this country is pretty confusing. Are electric cars taking over or has the EV bubble burst?

EVs currently represent about 8% of the US new car market. But they continue to face some relatively unique headwinds in this country. A very powerful and influential oil industry makes sure that anti-EV stories occupy center stage in the media. Traditional car dealers don’t want to sell EVs because they don’t make much money from parts and service. And EVs often find themselves tangled up in American politics.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world tells a very different story. Globally, EVs constitute 20% of new car sales, but in some places, they are doing much better than that.

So far this year, almost 87% of new car sales in Norway are electric and in August, the figure was 94%. Norway has some incentives in place for EV owners, but the fact that nearly all new cars on the road are electric is far more than the result of incentives.

One might argue that Norway, a country with only 5 million people, faces a much easier task of transitioning to EVs. But how about China with its 1.4 billion people? In July, plug-in vehicles in China were 51% of new auto sales. And the numbers continue to rise.

There are plenty of articles out there explaining why electric cars just can’t meet people’s needs, have insurmountable problems, and how having too many of them would collapse electric grids and otherwise wreak havoc with society. Apparently, the Norwegians and Chinese, among a growing number of other countries, haven’t gotten the memo.

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Elbil Thinks Electric Car Sales In Norway Could Hit 100% By Next Year

Photo, posted July 27, 2024, courtesy of Amaury Laporte via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fires Are Larger And More Frequent | Earth Wise

May 6, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder, wildfires have gotten much larger and much more frequent across the United States since the year 2000. The rise in wildfires in recent years has been attributed to the changing climate and the new research shows that large fires have become more common and have been spreading into new areas that previously did not burn.

The researchers analyzed data from over 28,000 fires that occurred between 1984 and 2018 using satellite imagery along with detailed state and federal fire history records.

The results are that there were more fires across all regions of the contiguous U.S. from 2005 to 2018 compared to the previous 20 years. In the West and East, fire frequency doubled, and in the Great Plains, fire frequency quadrupled. The amount of land burned each year at least tripled in those regions.

The team discovered that the size of fire-prone areas increased in all regions of the contiguous U.S. in the 2000s, meaning that the distance between individual fires has been getting smaller than it was in previous decades and the fires have been spreading into areas that did not burn in the past.

This comprehensive study confirms what has been assumed by the media, public, and firefighting officials. The results also align with increasing risk trends such as the growing development of natural hazard zones. Projected changes in climate, fuel, and ignitions suggest that there will be more and larger fires in the future. More large fires plus intensifying development mean that the worst fire disasters are still to come.

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U.S. Fires Four Times Larger, Three Times More Frequent Since 2000

Photo, posted May 3, 2013, courtesy of Daria Devyatkina via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Cars And The Environment | Earth Wise

April 20, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There are articles in the media all the time questioning whether electric cars are really better for the environment than those powered by fossil fuels. The usual argument is that once emissions from vehicle production and electricity generation are taken into account, electric cars are no greener than gas cars, or even worse for the environment. Of course, these arguments tend to be made by oil companies and their supporters.

A new study by three European universities looked at this very issue in detail. They carried out a life-cycle assessment in which they not only calculated greenhouse gas emissions generated when using cars, but also in the production chain and waste processing.

Their conclusions are that under current conditions, driving an electric car is better for the climate than conventional gasoline cars in 95% of the world. The only exceptions are places like Poland, where almost all electricity comes from coal-fired plants.

Average lifetime emissions associated with electric cars are up to 70% lower than gas cars in countries like Sweden and France and about 30% lower in England.

It is important to note than in a few years, even inefficient electric cars will be less emission-intensive than gas cars because electricity generation is becoming less carbon-intensive all the time. The study projects that by 2050, half of the world’s cars will be electric resulting in carbon dioxide emission reductions of 1.5 billion tons.

The study states that the idea that electric cars could increase emissions is a myth. The detailed study has run the numbers for all around the world and even in the worst-case scenario, there would be a reduction in emissions in almost all cases.

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Electric cars better for climate in 95% of the world

Photo, posted February 13, 2019, courtesy of Guillaume Vachey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Buses On The Rise

November 2, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Electric buses are replacing conventional diesel-fueled buses at an accelerating rate that is outpacing the adoption of battery-powered cars. According to forecasts by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, by 2030 some 28% of car sales will be electric vehicles while 84% of new buses will be electric buses. So far, some 12 years away, the actual adoption of electric buses is outpacing this optimistic projection.