Are electric vehicles really good for the environment?

Are electric vehicles really good for the environment?




   Many people believe that electric cars are good for the environment. Perhaps debatable, but it's mostly not. And here's why:


  Well, yes. Electric vehicles have many advantages over conventional ones. They are convinient, safe, popular, and essentially they are cost-effective, due to low maintenance and cheap electricity over regular fuels.

  To the public, they appear to have zero emissions and low noise pollution. It's true. But deep down, electric cars are harmful to the environment.

  As we all know that electric cars have batteries. These batteries contain Lithium, an alkali metal that powers most of the devices running on electricity like our phones, tablets and even cars. Well, that is not a concern. The concern is about how Lithium is is obtained.

  Lithium is obtained from the process of Lithium Mining. This requires a insanely huge amount of ground water. To put that into picture, just mining of 1 ton of Lithium requires 20 lakh litres of water (that's 6 zeros after 2!). And remember, an average car has 30 to 50 kgs of it. So 1 ton is used up in no time!

Fun Fact: Chile ran into an water crisis as 65% of its water was used for lithium mining.

  Not only water, lithium mines also produce large amounts of hazardous gases which are emitted in air. This affects the air quality. And the toxic waste produced in this process can consequentially cause birth defects, respiratory problems and various diseases and it can risk aquatic life.

  Thus, electric cars aren't an eco-friendly or green and clean alternative to conventional vehicles. They do harm the environment. Indeed the harm is less, but is caused.

  Nevertheless, electric vehicles are undoubtedly one of the most efficient and revolutionary invention that cannot be ignored. But the methods of its production should be improved and alternatives to lithium mining should be found or we will end up with all the wells and water bodies dried and with polluted air.

  And I think this is a bit far from now. Um! Except if the Elon guy involves!

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