Introduction
Today, the world is suffering from rising temperatures on the planet, the greenhouse effect caused by harmful CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. A significant part of the emissions is generated by industrial facilities, as well as vehicles with internal combustion engines. While there is no viable alternative to industrial facilities and emissions there can only be curbed but not eliminated, vehicles with internal combustion can be totally replaced. This paper hypothesizes that electric cars improve people’s life for good by significantly diminishing harmful emissions and protecting natural environment people live in.
The Necessity of Curbing CO2 Emissions
Over the past hundred years, at the age of a large-scale industrialization, the earth’s atmosphere has been filled with a significant amount of by-gases, in particular CO2. Cars have also contributed to this process, as they emit harmful substances into the atmosphere. At the end of the last century, scientists admitted this problem and began to look for alternative ways to replace oil and gas. Hydro and thermal as well as nuclear power plants were developed as the mankind sought to use renewable sources of energy. With the development of electricity people got the first mass source of energy not dependent on fossil fuels. Current electricity production is growing year by year embracing all spheres of people’s lives, and car manufacturers have begun to focus more and more on this resource.
Environmental Properties of Electric and Gasoline Cars: Comparison
Numerous reports show that without the introduction of widespread restrictions on the operation of vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines, emissions from transport could almost double by 2050 (Sładkowski 58). To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, which imply limiting the increase in the average temperature on the planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is necessary to reduce transport emissions by 80 percent compared to the current ones and limit them to no more than 2.6 billion tons of CO2 equivalent per year (Sładkowski 61). Electric vehicles have proven to be the best alternative to cars with internal combustion engines to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Already, during their life cycle, 66-69 percent less greenhouse gas emissions are generated in Europe compared to gasoline cars (Sładkowski 65). In several years these emissions will become even lower due to the general decarbonization of electricity.
Thus, a key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport is considered to be a massive transition from cars with internal combustion engines to electric cars and cars with hybrid or hydrogen engines. However, some people still dispute but the environmental friendliness of such vehicles due to the fact that electric cars’ life cycle leaves a carbon footprint at least through the production and disposal of batteries (Kim et al.). Studies were made to find out the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions in different types of cars. It turned out that electric vehicles produce 66-69 percent less greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and 60-68 percent in the United States compared to gasoline cars (Gómez Vilchez 80). Moreover, these figures have potential for further reduction. By 2030, significant decarbonization of electricity is expected due to a partial transition to renewable sources, and emissions from electric vehicles in the regions under consideration will be lowered by 74-77 and 62-76 percent respectively (Gómez Vilchez 69). This will significantly diminish the number of environmentally related deceases and improve the quality of people’s life.
Tesla: A Pioneer of Electric Cars
A significant part in the development of electric vehicles belong to the company Tesla. An American company owned by Musk has created a kind of iPhone in the world of cars. The advantage of these cars is that they were able to show and prove that electric cars are fast, ecological, beautiful and practical. Thanks to the right marketing support and extremely advanced technologies in construction, Tesla cars were able to create a revolution in the automotive world. In a recent interview, Musk even admitted that when creating new models, they use technologies used in the construction of modern Crew Dragon spacecraft (Kim et al.). Therefore, there is no need to argue about innovation here.
The success and popularity of Tesla has forced other major players in the market to develop this industry and gradually switch to creating their own flagships and models of electric vehicles. Along with this, car companies contribute to the development of special infrastructure, helps to use similar models better. In order to attract more customers, large shopping malls have begun to install modern, high-speed electric charging stations in their parking lots. Their use is often free, which is quite convenient and profitable at the same time. The only problem is that it takes a certain amount of time to charge one car, but the situation will change over time.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that electric cars are modern environmentally friendly means of transport that help to significantly improve people’s lives by reducing Carbone dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. This, in its turn, leads to the reduction of emissions-related deceases and enhances people’s quality of life. Moreover, electric cars do not require the combustion of fossil fuels that are becoming more and more obsolete and thus help to store these valuable resources for future generations.
Works Cited
Gómez Vilchez, Jonatan J. The Impact of Electric Cars on Oil Demand and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Key Markets. vol. 27. KIT Scientific Publishing, 2019.
Kim, Byung Cho, Hosun Rhim, and Hongsuk Yang. “Price Competition or Technology Improvement? An Investigation of Green Car Technology.” International Journal of Production Research vol. 59, no. 9, 2021, pp. 2800-2816.
Sładkowski, Aleksander, ed. Ecology in Transport: Problems and Solutions. Springer, 2020.