Active travel can help tackle the climate crisis earlier than electric vehicles – even if you swap the car for a bike for just one trip a day.

Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the world’s fossil fuel car fleet.

The emission savings from replacing all those internal combustion engines with zero-carbon alternatives will not feed in fast enough to make the necessary difference in the time we can spare: the next five years. Tackling the climate and air pollution crises requires curbing all motorised transport, particularly private cars, as quickly as possible. Focusing solely on electric vehicles is slowing down the race to zero emissions.

  • shastaxc@lemm.ee
    234·
    10 months ago

    “we” is used very liberally here. I had no say in the planning, implementation, or even the allocation of funds for the current infrastructure. In fact, most of it has existed since before I was born.

    • spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works
      95·
      10 months ago

      You’ve also been able to vote in a few local elections along the way, yeah? Where I’m at there are often candidates who champion bicycle infrastructure, and it’s not a new phenomenon. More often than not they’re mocked and not elected. I imagine my city isn’t unique in that.

      So yea, WE are to blame.

    • Isoprenoid@programming.devEnglish
      96·
      10 months ago

      most of it has existed since before I was born.

      I’m sure a lot of things existed before you were born.

      There were also a lot of things that didn’t exist before you were born.

      Change da world, my final message. Good bye.