voussoirs: WHAT SOLUTION: RENEWABLES?

Our era has a fever for ‘renewables’ as energy from sun, wind, and waves has been called; and as material and products from trees and growth generally have similarly been labelled. Embedded in this enthusiasm is the concept that our world will be saved by electric vehicles, battery-powered cars, trucks, boats, and planes, with nearly every vehicle manufacturer producing, or promising to produce, a totally electric fleet in the near future, when petrochemical powered vehicles are banned.

This proposition might sound satisfactory to those measuring carbon dioxide outputs, and dreaming of clean air, but one does have to wonder about our cities that are getting increasingly cluttered with vehicles. This congestion is such that it is stifling even itself, making many wonder what the future of our civic habitations might be. We tend to forget that, whether powered by ‘renewables’ or carbon-producing products, there is still the number problem – the growth of choking bottlenecks that is clogging the arteries of the countryside and the city, causing a frustrating mayhem instead of facilitating access; a chaos that itself wastes time and energy, a cost that never seems to be considered in the calculations and debates. It may be that our excitement with electric vehicles being the marvellous solution for the world, might cause vehicle numbers to grow, making matters far worse than they are now: the problem is not only carbon dioxide.

Even this concept that seems carelessly happy with an increase in numbers because of the apparent benign impact of electricity on the environment, appears to hide a serious problem. Tesla presently boasts about turning out 0.85 of a vehicle every minute from just one of its so-called Gigafactories. How many vehicles a minute might the world eventually make?^ This question causes one ponder the materials and energy required for such a manufacturing output, highlighting an approach and a strategy that seem to have no idea what is going to happen with dead batteries or trashed vehicles in a few years’ time, let alone the overcrowded towns and cities. The solution is somehow buried in the comfortable idea of recycling, without knowing how this might be done, or if it can be successful, achieving the intended outcomes of perpetual re-use. The shine of ‘clean’ electricity seems to shroud all other concerns that will just have to eventually force their presence into the energy equation if we choose to continue to ignore them.

The word ‘electric’ disguises what can be seen as potential, excessive waste; it distracts us. We may not be using carbon, but lithium extraction, for example, is as limited on our planet as all mined materials like steel and aluminium. We need an holistic vision to truly manage our world carefully rather than merely getting excited with one apparent solution to our woes, for these are never singular or isolated. Just grabbing at one cliché and blithely boasting about ‘miracle’ outcomes seems to blind us to other alternative problems of number, waste, and energy in these outputs that are intermingled with slick design, desire, and bespoke, personal expression# – the more personally intimate aspects of society that are just as critical as the physical factors, the things themselves, for our well-being; our contentment.

As well as our environment, our energy and materials efficacy and efficiency, and our mental health, we need to think more about our cities, what they might be other than a cluttered crush of vehicles linked with motorways clogged with growing numbers of individual vehicles trying to get somewhere, somehow, in spite of everything and everyone else. Planners seem to care little for this issue, going ahead approving more and more higher density developments using the same grids and the identical services. It is somewhat alarming to see Tesla and its associated companies promote tunnels filled with individual Tesla driver-less vehicles as a solution to our city mobility crisis. There is something self-serving here that needs review and revision, and change. It seems that co-operation might be better than rampant individuality, electric or not. One has to wonder why Elon Musk is in the news every day, several times a day. Are we enveloped in a personal, promotional hype than is useful for one?

We have become far too narrow-minded with our concerns with petrol and diesel: we must start to broaden our attentions. We need to learn to walk, stroll, jog, run, and chew gum at the same time if we are really going to attend to all of the issues of this era that modify our physical lives – and stress our minds and strain our feelings too. We must be far more inclusive instead of just applying the stark, rational logic of science to identified, isolated issues. Electricity may not give us the future we hope for or dream of when the elephants are allowed to rampage in the room, unchecked.