20/01/2022
Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric cars for the environment in Western Europe:
Advantages:
With reference to all articles written about this topic, the most important advantages of electric cars are the fresh air and decreased noise in the surrounding the cars are driving. Lung and cancer diseases are reduced in those areas. The surrounding environment has less CO2 and the noise of the engines are taken down nearby the roads.
Remark: Recent environmental optimized petrol car engines are probably an alternative for the electric car engines.
Disadvantages:
The air and environmental pollution is switched to the producing areas.
At least you have to drive around 60.000 km before you break even by producing an electric car instead of a petrol car. The production of an electric car is not so environmental friendly, especially not the battery.
The value of an electric car is in the battery. To make a battery and recycle it, is very energy intensive. The materials used for the producing are environmental unfriendly.
The range of an electric car is depending on the battery/
The price to be paid by the EU citizen is higher for a new electric car. In the Netherlands it is at least 33% more than for a comparable new petrol car.
The electricity is, at least now a days, not so environmentally as it seems.
Electricity is mainly produced from gas, coal, biofuels and uranium.
Coal: It not very friendly to the environment as well to lung diseases like astma. However you can filter the CO2 and put it underground ibut that is costing a lot
Gas: The gas has to be imported by pipeline from Russia, Norway and by ship (transport CO2) from the USA and Arabian States
Biofuels: Trees are imported from other countries so the transport costs are also countable. Beside of that you reduces the CO2 by sewing those trees. Complete forests are disappearing and so the CO2 cleaners.
Uranium: Dangerous if there is an accident like Tjenorbil. Beside of that the rest plutonium has to be put away in a very very safe way looking at the radiation.
Electricity produced by Waterfalls, Solar cells, windmills and Hydro
Waterfalls (White electricity) are in mountain areas a relative nice solution. Also the tide can be used but that is still in research
Sun: The sun is shining relative not so many hours in Western Europe and especially not in winter time. So the sun contributes, especially in winter, not so much electricity.
To produce the panels it costs a lot of energy and recycling them too. In fact it is the question what the real energy profit is during the life time of the panels in comparison to produce them. Beside of that if the cells are not placed on buildings it takes agricultural or nature ground to place them and it is landscape unfriendly.
Windmills are depending on the wind. If the wind does not blow you have a problem. Beside of that it not investigated how many birds and sea animals like fish and dolphins/whales are the victims of windmills. It can disturb the seallife more than till now is considered.
Beside of that people and animals that are living nearby are going sick of the noise and vibrations. It is also horizon and landscape pollution.
The blades of the windmills are not recyclable economically.
Hydro destroys the wildlife and that big pool of water creates a crap ton of CO2 with all the rotting vegetation that builds up in them constantly. Beside of that given the high pressure it is also explosion vunarable
Remark
The Netherlands are just responsible for around 0,2% CO2, the UK less than 1 percent of the worlds CO2. It will have no impact to reduce that if China, India etc. keep building new coal power plants.
Ton Knobbout, Scherpenzeel, 20-01-2022
