Are Electric Cars Really Green? | 5 Minute Video
Are electric cars greener than conventional gasoline cars? If so, how much greener? What about the CO2 emissions produced during electric cars’ production? And where does the electricity that powers electric cars come from? Environmental economist Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, examines how environmentally friendly electric cars really are.
Donate today to PragerU! http://l.prageru.com/2ylo1Yt
Joining PragerU is free! Sign up now to get all our videos as soon as they’re released. http://prageru.com/signup
Download Pragerpedia on your iPhone or Android! Thousands of sources and facts at your fingertips.
iPhone: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsnbG
Android: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsS5e
Join Prager United to get new swag every quarter, exclusive early access to our videos, and an annual TownHall phone call with Dennis Prager! http://l.prageru.com/2c9n6ys
Join PragerU’s text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru
Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful.
VISIT PragerU! https://www.prageru.com
FOLLOW us!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru
Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru
Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/
PragerU is on Snapchat!
JOIN PragerFORCE!
For Students: http://l.prageru.com/29SgPaX
JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2c8vsff
Script:
Do electric cars really help the environment? President Obama thinks so. So does Leonardo DiCaprio. And many others.
The argument goes like this:
Regular cars run on gasoline, a fossil fuel that pumps CO2 straight out of the tailpipe and into the atmosphere. Electric cars run on electricity. They don’t burn any gasoline at all. No gas; no CO2. In fact, electric cars are often advertised as creating “zero emissions.” But do they really? Let’s take a closer look.
First, there’s the energy needed to produce the car. More than a third of the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car comes from the energy used make the car itself, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is not a green activity. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it’s already been responsible for more than 25,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: just 16,000 pounds.
But that’s not the end of the CO2 emissions. Because while it’s true that electric cars don’t run on gasoline, they do run on electricity, which, in the U.S. is often produced by another fossil fuel — coal. As green venture capitalist Vinod Khosla likes to point out, “Electric cars are coal-powered cars.”
The most popular electric car, the Nissan Leaf, over a 90,000-mile lifetime will emit 31 metric tons of CO2, based on emissions from its production, its electricity consumption at average U.S. fuel mix and its ultimate scrapping.
A comparable Mercedes CDI A160 over a similar lifetime will emit just 3 tons more across its production, diesel consumption and ultimate scrapping. The results are similar for a top-line Tesla, the king of electric cars. It emits about 44 tons, which is only 5 tons less than a similar Audi A7 Quattro.
So throughout the full life of an electric car, it will emit just three to five tons less CO2. In Europe, on its European Trading System, it currently costs $7 to cut one ton of CO2. So the entire climate benefit of an electric car is about $35. Yet the U.S. federal government essentially provides electric car buyers with a subsidy of up to $7,500.
Paying $7,500 for something you could get for $35 is a very poor deal. And that doesn’t include the billions more in federal and state grants, loans and tax write-offs that go directly to battery and electric-car makers
The other main benefit from electric cars is supposed to be lower pollution. But remember Vinod Khosla’s observation “Electric cars are coal-powered cars.”
Yes, it might be powered by coal, proponents will say, but unlike the regular car, coal plant emissions are far away from the city centers where most people live and where damage from air pollution is greatest. However, new research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that while gasoline cars pollute closer to home, coal-fired power actually pollutes more — a lot more.
For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/videos/are-electric-cars-really-green
source
The energy solution is newer, cleaner, less costly fission nuclear including SMRs and microreactors.
The US is a country where electric cars are not worth considering. I’m leaving to France.
DID THEY COVER THE SHIPS FROM CHINA
What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that CO2 from human industry was a dangerous, planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world – that CO2, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison.
So if an electric car breaks down it becomes junk cars
Co2 levels in the atmosphere is just 0.04% a tiny fraction but absolutely vital for plant life. Humans contribute just 3% of that tiny amount. In the past Co2 levels were 1,000 higher and the planet still went into an ice age. They have lied to us about everything and I do mean everything.
No your calculations and perspective to see things is not so right.
Take 2 cars for instance on the road for 10 years in a city one on petrol engine and one on electricity🔌 so which one will pollute the environment most?
Absolutely the petrol engine one. End of the story.
CO2 is actually Good for the environment. Plants thrive on it. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/FC7C4946-11A3-4967-BF28-8D0386608D3E
What bout the 60% loss in the transmission and distribution of electricity? This makes EV's very dirty.
Much much greener than dinosaur juice burners
This is a complete pack of lies. To start with, around 40% of energy produced in the US is via renewable sources, not 14%. In the UK its nearer 50% and in other countries higher still. You also fail to note the horrendous ecological disaster that is drilling for, transporting and refining oil.
Australia produces over 90% of the world's lithium, and only 1% of the world's oil. But the environmental damage from producing most of the world's lithium is just a fraction of the utter environmental disaster of producing just 1% of its oil.
Let's talk about cobalt. EVs are roundly blamed for chils slave miners working in horrendous conditions, but actually cobalt has been used in the refining of petroleum products for generations. More cobalt has been used in the refining of petroleum products than will EVER be used in EV production. It is the petroleum industry that is responsible for the child slave miners.
Energy production in this day and age, never mind the future, is massively less damaging to the environment than drilling, for, transporting, refining, distributing, and ultimately burning oil. Your whole life figures for both types of vehicle are an utter lie. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Eight years ago they were not so green but today, now that there are economies of scale and almost 50% of US energy is renewable, the game has changed>
Examine this evidence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzSFTz9uXvg
lifetime of 90000 miles , gas and diesel cars go easily 300000 these days so divide your figure in 3 . its easy to see that gas cras emit way less than their electric counter part. You say at 90000 i will change cars but someone will buy it used and have to replace the battery. also your numbers seem to be electric friendly , many other studies just for the battery(not the whole car)over 96000km show the emissions to be on par with a average eropean diesel suv. that was for producing the battery alone and not accounting for even one charge…
By comparison, yes. Greatest wins are with bikes, scooters, micro cars where you can roll your batteries home to charge them. And batteries are improving all the time so in 3/4 years the advantages will be more obvious. Fossil fuels kill 11 million every years while the indirect cost of drouts, floods, massive fires et al is many times greater.
Your video does not take into consideration how many people in Africa and other countries supplying materials.
BÆSED prageru exposing greenwashing
Public transports and bike are the only true clean means of transportation
I would still get an electric if it was safe from catching on fire 🔥 in an accident. The ones u can plug into your electric outlet like 1 I saw long ago. No gas station.
What's Funny To Me Is That If You Wanted To Power Electric Cars At A Large Scale, Realisitically, You'd Need A Loto Of Coal Power Stations To Do It. Also, While I Get That You Have To Drill For Oil, Refine It, And Transport It Which Creates Emissions. You Also Have To Mine For Lithium, Refine It And Transport It To Make E.V. Batteries, And That Also Creates Emissions, So Yeah, There's Really No (Easy) Way To Weasel Our Way Out Of Emissions With E.V. Usage.
Why is Mr Bjorn Lombord telling so much misinformation? Why?
This analysis is 5 years ago.
Imagine now how much more cleaner are the electric vehicles.
https://youtu.be/hwMPFDqyfrA?si=nTwLncbCVSPmMOgO
Not mentioned is the study that determined because the EV is so much heavier than a conventional vehicle because of the heavy batteries, there is excessive wear on the tires which results in more local air pollution than conventional vehicles.
Seems like this video counts every step of electric energy production and compares that to only the gas used in the car itself. What about all the steps involved to make the gas?
Everything is toxic. Even water based paint. And CO2 is natural food for plants.
Don't eat bread, no more bbq, because it makes CO2.
Cap all volcanoes, CO2 and other toxic gases. Stop supporting Ukraine, because the US weapons and given tanks burn ad produce more toxins than Tesla cars.
For anyone wondering about the truthfulness of the information in this video, it’s not true in 2024. Electric cars are much cleaner than gas-powered cars and break even with gas-powered cars on total pollution after just 2-3 years of ownership. I’m a huge proponent of PragerU but I own and drive an electric car and it has been a wonderful ownership experience. Simply put, it’s a better car with newer technology.
Well that's depressing (not a US citizen).
Alternative sources, like solar and wind, albeit are more green in producing electricity when in operation may also not be entirely green as well, when you think about it, from a big picture perspective. In Layman’s terms, how about what it took to manufacture the solar panels and wind farms the same way you might think of how EV manufacturing is powered? Also, until we can figure out a way to grow the supply output for alternative sources of energy in the world, it’s still not enough to entirely meet the energy demand of the world, on top of the data that was disclosed in this video. I agree! 💯
This prager video is exceptionally problematic. They normally lie but not this much…
No. Electric cars are absolutely NOT green ‐ environmentally friendly what so ever. They can be however better for our wallets and bank accounts unless 1. If you can't charge at home and have to use expensive public charging stations. 2. If you don't commute locally 3. If your electricity bills works out to be more expensive than refueling.
In my case recharging is 5 times cheaper than refuelling and also servicing is also a lot cheaper compared to the equivalent brand new ICEs due to fewer moving parts. Driving EVs around town is even cheaper than taking a bus (may not be your case).
Off course there are concerns of battery replacements but thankfully can easily last 10 years or so if you 1. Minimise the use of fast charging stations, use slow chargers at home 2. Only fully charge when you need to do long trips.
EVs are not environmentally friendly but they're quiet, smooth, quick off the line and truely economical esp doing short commutes with frequent mandatory stops.
The problem is still the Fossil Fuel industry. I love how conservative think tanks have gone from being skeptical about global warming, to now retracting on everything the party has said about the subject. They went from saying “It’s probably not happening” to “We accept that it’s happening now.” Makes me think you didn’t have the slightest clue on the subject in the first place when we could have been doing something about it. Nobody is saying that the fossil fuels stranglehold on the US economy is going to change anytime soon, just because they drive an electric car. Those are predetermined thoughts you have on a person you see driving past you on the road which you tell yourself to make you feel better.
Short answer: yes
I still think there cool
lol that's utterly idiotic. So much obviously disinformation. It's so full of disinformation that there's actually a counter video that really debunks all the points of that video: https://youtu.be/1oVrIHcdxjA?si=qvYtRLvxH9dX6Ymi
1. Lithium production is nowhere as as energy intense as they claim. Funny that they even used an ocean oil rig to show 'lithium' mining when in fact the biggest lithium production facility in Chile uses brine water solar evaporation to get lithium in a desert : https://youtu.be/50rXYrFCQMw?si=d1New1PoDmPkVl4p
2. So even if you used the dirtiest coal source of electricity they claim that an EV uses 25k pounds of CO2 while an ICE car uses 16k pounds. It's not even that much more given that the the ICE vehicle will spew a lot more toxins by burning petrol over its useful lifetime. On average an EV will already close that carbon footprint gap at 8500 miles and then stop. The ICE vehicle on the other hand will continue polluting over its entire lifetime. They even conclude that the ICE vehicle will incur more CO2! Wtf? And those data points assume the worst case for electric vs the most efficient ICE vehicle they could find. Lol, not biased right?
3. The entire argument of that video is "electric cars are coal powered cars" ehich is quite dumb, considering that in the UK most EV owners source their energy from renewables energy prodivers like Octopus energy, not coal!!
4. Their datapoints are also so flawed because they assume that EV scrapping adds to the carbon footprint when in reality EV batteries are over 95% recyclable for all the material that went into it. The battery material doesn't degrade and all of it is reusable. Batteries degrade due to dendrite formation. Battery material is not oil.
4. Lol they talk about subsidies for EVs as if it's a huge thing but it's a drop in the ocean compared to how much subsidies we give bigoil each year: about $7 trillion https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/climate-change/energy-subsidies. Without those subsidies oil would never be able to stay competitive with renewables.
Just to put that into perspective, you could replace every single car in Australia with a $70k brand new EV and still have spare cash to finance the healthcare system EACH YEAR, with JUST $1trillion. Let that sink in for a moment.
5. They really keep talking about how coal power plants are bad. Duh?! But then assume that all electricity comes from coal… I mean how dumb do you have to be to not see the flaw here??! 🤣😂🤣 specially when in reality the balance of fossil fuel energy production is very different. It's also hilarious that they don't compare the effects of oil energy production. I wonder why?? Maybe it doesn't paint big oil in a good light?
6. They claim that only 14% of energy comes from renewables in the US. That didn't age well with it standing at almost 20% today. Guess what: they didn't include another 20% from nuclear in their calculations. How convenient? It's as if all electricity came from coal?! 🤣😂🤣https://youtu.be/1oVrIHcdxjA?si=EP-qE2ukVkBLi7FU
Btw check out this bogus US registered 'non-profit' organisation that published these claims that's very clearly funded by the oil industry https://www.science.org/content/article/climate-change-contrarian-loses-australian-funding. I mean i trust science.org way more than some phony organisation. Po
This video hasn’t aged well.
Combustion engines are still in the same place and well the EV has advanced considerably.
https://youtu.be/LeHakmL6eEc?feature=shared
Can you point me to the primary sources used for the facts and information in this article?
Green only for idiots!
Cherry picked data here (once again) for those with cognitive dissonance and willful ignorance.
Real and fair analysis with holes in BLs assertions here
https://youtu.be/hwMPFDqyfrA?si=vi86hEWrMa5pKZ6v
Ev -s are a hoax … 500 kg baterry packs on 4 wheels … Electrycity comes from coal … Forget solar panels + wind propellers … Mining materials for baterries is NOT CLEAN STUFF … There are not enough ev chargers .. Long charging time + short autonomy + you hawe to live in private house + this kind of " cars" are not cheap + you have to replace baterry pack every 5-7 years – very expensive …
Ev-s egnite themselves a lot + this kingd of fire is almost impossible to "shut down" … Ask firefiters – VERY BIG PROBLEM. If one ev-s vehicle catch fire – all parking garage of "normal" cars burns … Crazy stuff If one ( 1 ) ev burns – ferry with 5000 / 7000 normal cars – sink after huge fire – this happen 3 times in last 3 years. / P.s. Ev – s are modern … But we will NOT save our planet with this kind of wehicle. Not now. Not tomorrow. Period. / It is PROPAGANDA 24/7. It is BRAINWASHING. It is a LIE – for bigger profit. / This is not about clean ear / healthy invirement … It is businnes. Very big money. / Eco friendly is only walking + biking + sailing. / 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑…
Fun fact: dam power is on the rise, which allows for more cars to be powered by renewable electricity sources. also, solar and wind power.
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed have Deforested over thirty percent of the State of Rhode Island and placed hazardous waste panels where there where trees Why ?