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Majbo t1_j9yadyc wrote

Reply to comment by rdtthoughtpolice in New cohort study of 3.7 million adults finds that long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with an increased risk of having a heart attack or dying from heart disease — associations more pronounced in low socioeconomic status communities by marketrent

It is impossible with current battery technologies and energy infrastructure. There is only so much lithium in areas in which we are willing to devastate the environment to mine it.

We should definitely invest in electrification, but priority should be more efficient transportation (public transport, biking infrastructure, and walkability).

And in the end, traffic is not even close to the top of the air pollution causes. Burning coal is much worse, and burning wood is also pretty bad in regard to PM10 particles. Not to mention industrial pollution. Cars are pretty bad for co2 emissions, but a modern car emits 100x less nox and particulants than a gas-powered lawn mower or a chainsaw per minute.

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rdtthoughtpolice t1_j9yb10v wrote

You only have to spend 5 minutes with your window down in peak hour traffic to see that cars are the immediate problem for those of us who live in cities. No one is burning coal within 100km of my house but every day I am exposed to fumes from cars. It's not just C02 by a long shot either. Australia has some of the worst emissions standards so we are getting dumped with all the dirtiest burning cars, not to mention all the old cars on the road here that you see just billowing black smoke. The best thing for air quality here would be to replace as many of these as possible with electric cars.

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Majbo t1_j9yc5q5 wrote

Great in theory, but there is only so much lithium. There is only ~50M tons of lithium somewhat easily available. That is not enough to replace all cars. Maybe enough for 40% of all cars. Just cars. And that is if we put all lithium into cars. We still need it for other kinds of power storage and for other industries.

We need new tech before we can even discuss it as an option.

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rdtthoughtpolice t1_j9ycxma wrote

Australia has enough lithium to replace all our cars if we would actually manufacture batteries and cars ourselves instead of just exporting raw material so we can buy back finished products at exorbitant rates, but in principle I agree with you, except again this is a question of political will and our politicians are all just greedy corporate schills. There's tonnes of potential in graphene and sodium batteries, we just aren't putting in the effort.

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Majbo t1_j9yd8vu wrote

I agree that on a country scale, Australia could do it. It is a lithium rich country. On a world wide scale, we need new tech. And I'm optimistic that in 10-15 years there won't be anything holding us back on electrifying transportation except for policy making and greed.

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