Is buying a Tesla "good" for the environment?

[Reykjavik]

I don't care about "the environment". I care about having an environment that can sustain a healthy, happy, large population, and enabling us to expand to other planets and eventually other stars.

Having electric vehicles will enable me to live, live happily, and have small enough impact on the environment that it will continue to sustain humanity on earth until the sun swallows it as it expands in about 4 billion years.

 

[Ocelot]

The arguments are silly since driving a Tesla is good for the environment. But playing the game, the environment will do just fine. It's the life forms -- not the environment -- that will suffer. So if someone says "save the planet", well, the planet will do just fine no matter how much we screw it up. We are just a temporary infestation that in the magnitude of time makes very little difference to the planet -- but a huge difference to us. So we need to use language approriate for our little micrscopic lives (especially those of the homo sapiens -- which in terms of the earth is, if you stretch out your arms, barely a filing of your nails in relation to the age of the earth). Most of us drive -- that's a fact -- we need to minimize the impact of driving on the envrironment. Hopefully, showing how taking arguments to the extreme will make it fine to say driving a Tesla is good for the environment. Otherwise, we waste our time with semantics.

Agreed.

 

[Canuck]

Originally Posted by Canuck
All civilizations eventually collapse regardless of their social norms. We're circling the drain now. Slowing down the speed of the force of the water is the best we can hope for.

Another depressing perspective.

What a gloomy forum these days.

Not really. The more we learn about black holes, the more we learn about The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
So, it appears that our entire galaxy is, in fact, circling the ultimate drain of a black hole. Then again, no need to worry since the sun will burn out before that happens. And we'll all be gone long before that. But none of this has me depressed. There's too much fascination and wonder in the world to be depressed. The fact that we are even having this conversation is unbelievable given the odds when we started out as one out of about 300 million sperm headed for the egg. So whatever drain we are ultimately flushed down, the fact of the matter is we will all be dead soon - long before we anyone of us will hear the final flush.

Hopefully, putting it all in perspective like this makes you feel better.

Still, driving a Tesla is good for the environment!

 

[GSP]

Another depressing perspective.

What a gloomy forum these days.

Entropy will win in the end Brianman.

In the meantime we can enjoy the life that has been given to us. What a gift!

GSP

 

[EchoDelta]

en·vi·ron·ment
enˈvīrənmənt,-ˈvī(ə)rn-/
noun

• the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.
  

  synonyms:

  habitat, territory, domain;

.

Lol exactly the definition undermines your point.
everything is the environment of everything else in a closed system.
The boundary is subjective and a linguistic phenomena.
Your assertion is a mental escape hatch.

Recommended reading you may enjoy: "permaculture" (mollison), "thinking in systems", "women fire and other dangerous things" Lakoff, and some Chomsky

 

[William13]

I must say that I agree with several posters here. The issue is trying to move humans to a more sustainable future. We will influence the environment. We will use resources. We early adopters ARE making an impact that will influence the future. I suspect that most of us want a future where people can eat quality foods, live in controlled environments (houses), socialize, work productively, have children, and travel. Elon Musk's Tesla Model S is a step in that direction. Without Tesla we would need to wait at least 10+ years for technology to develop for Electric Cars. This would put us that much closer to a brink from which we might not be able to survive with our current or better quality of life.

 

[Canuck]

Lol exactly the definition undermines your point.
everything is the environment of everything else in a closed system.

Not really. My point is, as stated above: "driving a Tesla is good for the environment. Otherwise, we waste our time with semantics."

I used the word "environment" as the dictionary describes it: "the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates."

Your definition above uses the word "environment" to describe "environment". I don't really understand the rest of your post. I have read Chomsky and while he makes some good points, I side with Christopher Hitchens' criticism of him. Here's a good description of the difference between the two:

What's the main difference between these two? Chomsky with all his book-learning has only ever propounded one idea -- American imperialism is responsible for all the world's woes, whereas Hitchens' erudition encompasses so many as to boggle the mind. As Hitchen's says, "This is the sum total of what has been learned, by the guru of the left, in the last decade."

 

[Jaff]

civilizations[/COLOR] eventually collapse regardless of their social norms. We're circling the drain now. Slowing down the speed of the force of the water is the best we can hope for.

Well, at least we're going down in style! :wink::biggrin:

 

[MarkR]

We're circling the drain now. Slowing down the speed of the force of the water is the best we can hope for.

I wanna take all of theses silly arguments and plug the drain! Driving a a Tesla won't save the planet, but it's better than an ICE and a few thousand EV owners are apt to spark some thinking about other choices that have an impact.

 

[dhrivnak]

I went through a bit of self-examination when I spent way too much money on my Roadster (not that I was going to give it up...). Clearly, it seemed at first, if I wanted to do something to help global warming, there were better ways to spend that much money that would get more bang for the buck.

Now, I'm not so sure. In the last three years ... I've talked to hundreds of people about the effects of global warming, have participated in countless car shows where people have ended up going electric (instead of a new ICE), have worked with schools to put on programs about the effects CO2 on the atmosphere, have changed many of my personal habits (including installing a large enough solar system to completely zero out my energy usage) ... and I could go on.

So could I have had a bigger effect if I had spent my money in other ways? Probably not. The Roadster gets attention. And they listen. And the impact I've already made will continue and grow. For each person I have converted, they will convert more ... who will convert yet more. And so on. I will never know how big of an impact I've had by making this one simple purchase. But I know I've had one. And so have each of you.

This is SO true. I have been doing sustainability for more than 30 years and the Roadster in the last three years has opened more doors at schools, civic groups, and company events than my solar home did in the first 27 years. The Roadster helped me to bite the bullet for roof top solar to cover 85% of the house and the car. My CO2 footprint is now lower than 90% of "environmentalists" who speak of going green but who normally have many excuses for doing very little.

 

[Nichen]

The biggest positive thing about electric cars is that they don't pollute the cities. That is a HUGE benefit if you ask me. People seem to forget that pretty often!!

 

[RichardC]

This is SO true. I have been doing sustainability for more than 30 years and the Roadster in the last three years has opened more doors at schools, civic groups, and company events than my solar home did in the first 27 years. The Roadster helped me to bite the bullet for roof top solar to cover 85% of the house and the car. My CO2 footprint is now lower than 90% of "environmentalists" who speak of going green but who normally have many excuses for doing very little.

Absolutely correct. The Tesla Model S has shifted the entire focus of the conversation from deprivation and sacrifice into the potential of technology to provide an improved life with a smaller environmental footprint. It makes others more interested and willing to listen to information about passive solar construction, solar panels, heat pumps, etc. than was previously the case.

 

[ABVA]

anyone who buys the car because they think they are "helping" the environment is deluding themselves.

the only way to "help" the environment is to NOT BUY A CAR. or anything. move closer to work and walk.

buying a new Tesla is still a big net negative for the environment. not as bad as an ICE car, but still a negative. let's get real, folks...

Take a walk???? Have you thought about how your food gets to grocery stores, it is not delivered by suppliers walking to grocery stores.

 

[nwdiver]

buying a new Tesla is still a big net negative for the environment. not as bad as an ICE car, but still a negative.

....this sentence contradicts itself... if I REPLACE an ICE with a Tesla... then it's a net positive...