Chariots (2021)

Clara Ford drove a 1914 Detroit Electric, which she by far preferred to the Model T, a gasoline engine car built by her husband Henry[1]. Detroit Electric shipped its last car in 1939 and now we are told that the race to the electric car has just started[2].

Every carmaker is planning to become carbon neutral soon, and they are telling us, constantly telling now, that the planet can only be saved by purchasing electric cars. Like anyone else, I can appreciate the advantage of eclectic cars in carbon management, but I feel that we are not given the whole story. According to some, BHP for example, there could be 125 million electric cars on the road by 2030. Each of these cars will need about 183 lbs. of copper to build their motors[3]. I am not sure that mining all of those millions of tons of copper will be very kind to Mother Earth. Will she be saved or not?

I also have a certain ‘inquiétude’, a worry that our planet can only be saved by those with money to promote the mining. How can the poor help? How can Earth be truly saved if we exclude those who are economically challenged? Is it not ‘our’ planet after all? How can the electric car be a symbol of both salvation and inequity? If there was a heartfelt desire to save Mother Earth, governments would give tax breaks to those who have forfeited car ownership, instead of helping others to buy more vehicles.

What is killing our world is the societal model of promoting constant and excessive consumption of all matter. The rest is marketing and, so far, marketing has not saved anything.

Daniel H. Dugas
February 23, 2021

Image credit: [Detroit Electric auto on a promotional tour through mountains from Seattle to Mt. Rainier] / Cress-Dale Photo Co., Crary Bldg, Seattle. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003653829/

For more on this:
A Clear Conscience and a Bright Blue Sky (2020)
http://daniel.basicbruegel.com/a-clear-conscience-and-a-bright-blue-sky-2020/

[1] Henry Ford’s Wife Wouldn’t Drive Ford Model T, Kept Her Electric Car
https://cleantechnica.com/2014/04/11/henry-fords-wife-wouldnt-drive-model-t-kept-electric-car/

[2] Our Path to an All-Electric Future
https://www.gm.com/electric-vehicles.html

[3] How Much Copper is in an Electric Vehicle?
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-copper-is-in-an-electric-vehicle/