Rutland and Stamford Mercury letter of the week: Are our journeys really necessary?

Letter writer David Baker questions whether people should be driving as much as they are

The festive season gave opportunity to meet new people and it was with sad amusement I listened to both young and old espouse their virtues of improving their green credentials by simply buying a new electric or hybrid car.

Few had given consideration as to the real cost-benefits of doing this, idly believing the hype given by the car industry that such cars address the issues of their fossil fuel predecessors.

Many of those replaced their existing vehicle, either by trade in or selling privately. They drove away proudly in their new car without further thought their old car was still going to be used and thus continue to impact the environment, albeit with a different driver.

So little or no benefits there.

They believe they charge their new electric car using ‘green’ electricity thereby having no emissions when driving along.

It’s interesting to note the the Governments Business and Industry Statistics office reported that green electricity contributed to only 41% of electric consumed in 2022. Can it really be that this small proportion of the total energy generated is directed to charging points?

The new generation of electric cars still require the same amount of tyres to propel along the vast expanse of fossil fuel based bitumen road networks throughout the land. Roads need still to be maintained to support the new generation of cars.

So little or no benefits there.

The tyres and braking systems still contribute to the same levels of PM 2.5 emissions, giving rise to higher levels of asthma.

So little or no benefits there.

Most importantly, few people had given even the slightest consideration to the environmental cost of producing their wonderful new car.

This is perhaps because it is somewhat complex, with real data from the car producing industry somewhat difficult to find.

However, in simple terms selling on your old fossil fuel car when buying a new electric vehicle has a significant environmental cost.

This is because the full environmental impacts of your old vehicle have already been realised but with the new vehicle you will have invoked the full environmental impacts of building yet another vehicle.

A full life cycle analysis suggests such impacts appear to far outweigh the perceived benefits of new vehicle production.

The energy costs of car production including the environmental costs of the new technologies are now becoming the focus of real scrutiny and understanding.

This is only now allowing the full impacts of the reliance on rare earths for battery production to be realised.

Although originally mooted as the cure for all ills, the actual reality of switching to alternative electric vehicle technology has perhaps served only to invoke the law of unintended consequences.

We need to remember the old saying that if something seems to good to be true, then ...

If we are really serious about protecting our world and the environment for our children and our children’s children, then we need to challenge some long held beliefs that the ‘car is king’.

Rather than switching to the expensive new technologies, perhaps we need to look at lifestyles and ask whether our next journey is really necessary? Is there an alternative that can be used?

Do little Johnny and Mary really need to be chauffeured the 500m to school and back each day in the family SUV?

Cutting down car usage and miles travelled is the only real way we will cut emissions.

Let’s stop the pretence and start to take real responsibility for our actions.

Before signing for that new electric car, question the real green credentials of car manufacturers rather than blindly accepting their green washing.’

David Baker

Greetham