As with most problems, the solutions have existed for a long time. The modern world just seems to think that a solution cannot be practical if no bells and whistles are added, it looks fancy and the it is marketed in an enticing way.
A few weeks ago I read Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. It was published in 1975 and I only stumbled upon it because it was sitting in a doorway, to be given away for free with many other books. When I finally read it, I was amazed, or rather blown away by his foresight and that even forty-eight years later we are still looking for solutions to environmental destruction, climate change and societal inequalities while simple, democratic and easy to implement solutions have been around for a long time.
Maybe it is the hubris of humans that makes them think complex problems need overly complex solutions or maybe it is just capitalism, because easy and simple solution don’t usually include profits for corporations and the very wealthy. Electric Vehicles
This brings me to our current situation we are in. The media, industry and government are constantly bombarding us with messages of doom and gloom about the future of our planet, and that the only way to save it, is by buying a product. Let’s jump in and start with electric cars, heralded as the only viable solution to making transportation climate friendly. Especially in my home country of Germany, the base of the most powerful and well known car manufacturers the message about benefits of electric cars is everywhere. But looking at such a car, it is extremely complex, far from what we have seen in run of the mill products before. The most complex part by far is the battery and not in the same way a combustion engine is complex. It is just a lot of trail and error and clever engineering, but when it comes to batteries, these are marvels of chemistry. Intricate combinations of different materials making it work. It is quite a beautiful design. And it works well for the individual, it works well for a few rich Californians and maybe even on a larger scale for a very rich country like Norway, but this is where I see the limit. Or rather, this is where the limit is. Because now we move away from a marvel of chemistry to social and political realms that have nothing to do with, if something works. Just because it makes sense for one unit does not mean it makes sense for millions of them. Even in Germany which likes to brag about its “Energiewende” that really tried to drive the adoption of EVs, it has fallen flat and in the recent time almost stopped. We want an entire population to switch to a technology in a few short years while it took more than a hundred years to get where we are today when it comes to cars. And the way to do it is through government incentives, here are ten-thousand euros for you the Germany citizen to by an electric car that costs sixty-thousand euros. Great. The only problem is that most people who buy an EV are wealthy from the start and have more than one car at home. They just buy it because it is a cheap fun experiment for them. But where are these incentives coming from? The taxpayer obviously, the vast majority of them cannot afford a sixty-thousand euro car. But all of them pay so a few people who do not really care about the money can drive some highly complex ego stroked VW or Tesla. The irony is that most Germans don’t own a car at all, making it even more ridiculous that they are forced to pay for someone else’s fancy transport.
Coming back to the ego inside of the cars, they are build by these global corporations who have their own ideas of what a car is supposed to be. So instead of getting a small, affordable car that uses as little resources as possible we get tank sized SUVs that weigh two or three tons and consume so much energy due to their weight and “comfort” features that there is no efficiency gain, but at least corporate agenda was represented. More heavier cars damage more roads more and more meaning that they need more fixing which leads to more congestion, more pollution emitted and more tax payer money spend on fixing a problem that is caused by a rich few.
Also it is understandable that Western governments see themselves as the pinnacle and center of the world but outside rich nations like the USA, Canada, Germany, UK, Norway, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands we already run into problems. Making up just a fraction of the world’s population even in these country almost no one can afford EVs, how do they think that billions of people in other countries will adopt these technologies? People that would need to save for decades to by an overpriced and over-engineered piece of electronic waste that they cannot even repair themselves? These people all drive combustion engines and it took a hundred years to get to the point where it has become feasible for them to do so? It is not and it never will be feasible. Replacing a global fleet of cars that is in the billions with battery electric vehicles is impossible from a resource point of view and time point of view. Our solution seems to be to rip up the earth to get all these complex and rare materials that are required to build a battery, let alone a modern car that is also a mix complex materials. Meaning the more cars we make, and the corporations plan on making tens of millions a year, the more we need to destroy the environment and exploit poor countries to find the necessary ingredients that a battery cannot function without. Let alone that most countries, or let us just say ALL countries on this planet are not equipped to charge tens of millions of electric vehicles over the existing grid, not slow and not fast.
Coming to the end of it’s lifetime, what happens after we used up the battery of such a car, and let’s be clear here. Batteries are consumables, they degrade with every use. They will fail, some earlier some later but they are slowly converting into waste. It feels good to see a few white coated scientists explaining that it is theoretically possible to recycle the materials. But again, this needs to happen on a scale of millions and hundred of millions and it would be best if it took no or little energy because this makes it rather a dumb invention when it takes more energy to build and discard the thing, than it can ever contribute. I just don’t see that happening. Renewable Energy
Let’s look at renewable energy and that we basically have the same misconceptions about them as we have about electric cars. Recently I saw a giant one page sized ad in a renowned newspaper that came from a bank which only invests in “good” and “renewable” technologies and projects. The ad was a picture of one of the biggest coal fired power stations in Germany, having many big buildings and about ten cooling towers in full force. In contrast the other picture on the page depicted an idyllic field with a few solar panels and a few wind turbines. They should show, if they claim to be so good, the equivalent amount of solar panels and wind turbines because the picture would be vastly different. A dead desert of glass as far as they eye can see, the sky darkened by the sheer amount of turbines covering it. Quickly this green idyllic picture would turn into a dystopian vision of the near future. It is about scale, a system that grew organically over hundreds of years cannot and will not be replaced by something so new. There are billions of tons of material, trillions of dollars invested and TWhs that need to be replaced. With an inferior technology that does not work at night, when there is no wind and over all is not that efficient. To store the energy we need batteries again where we come full circle to electric vehicles. What works on an individual level does not mean it works for a whole country or a whole planet. What seems not like a big deal becomes a huge problem when there are millions or billions of units. Nice to have a few solar panels on the roof, again subsidized by the tax payer, but they will fail eventually and need to be thrown away. Or recycled which will take so much energy that not producing them would be the smart move. As always, the complete lifecycle and environmental discussion is ignored in favor of a few short term profits for the rich payed for by the poor. Real Solutions
To come back to Ecotopia, the solutions have existed for a long time and are simple ones. When it comes to transportation, we need to make cities more walk-able and car free. We need to disincentivize people taking their giant hunks of steel everywhere out of laziness. We need to build cheap, reliable public transport that not just operates in a city but throughout a whole country. We need to make it easy for the user to use, meaning one ticket to drive them all. For some people cars or vans or trucks are necessary, and small purpose build vehicles that are easy to fix and have few creature comforts are the solution. Everything else can and still will use combustion engines. Which should not be a problem if traffic is drastically reduced. More walking also means more healthy people and more social encounters and cities that do live again.
Turning to renewable and energy production in general, use less. Consume less energy and don’t waste it. Nuclear seems to be the only viable solution that is somewhat carbon neutral. But using less, consuming less, less TVs and computers and EVs and lights and smart home bullshit. But these solutions offer no back doors for huge amounts of money to be made.
It is all very simple, use less! We all need to use less!