>We will not buy or consume our way out of climate change or negative externalities that affect the environment.
I disagree. While our consumption habits merit a lot of discussion, we literally have to buy and consume our way out of climate change.
We're not going to _stop_ buying and consuming, and we're not going to manage to reduce it enough to stop climate change without massive economic recession (read: massive human suffering).
You can argue such suffering is overall less than what we will suffer due to catastrophic climate change, but that is not at all obvious.
> we literally have to buy and consume our way out of climate change.
This is like hoping that we can dig ourselves out of a hole that we already dug ourselves into.
> We're not going to _stop_ buying and consuming, and we're not going to manage to reduce it enough to stop climate change without massive economic recession
If we aren't going to forgo consumption, personal transportation as the only mode of transportation and a market that refuses to properly account for negative externalities, I feel that we should at least be honest about the situation instead of pretending that continuing the status quo will fix climate change and environmental destruction.
Let's just be honest and say that we don't intend to change things, and embrace the fact that climate change might usher in destruction and human suffering on a large scale. That way we can at least address problems as they arise instead of believing in a fantasy where a solution will fall into our laps if we just buy the right cars.
> This is like hoping that we can dig ourselves out of a hole that we already dug ourselves into.
Which is a good example, because that's literally how you get people out of a hole. You dig your self out -- you stop digging down, and start digging at a 45 degree angle upwards, so you and everyone behind you can safely walk out of that hole.
That's what we need people to be doing -- continue consuming, but sideways instead of downwards, so their consumption helps fix the problem.
> a market that refuses to properly account for negative externalities
Then you should be thrilled with what Tesla (and all EVs) are doing. They are eliminating some major externalities.
Other public transportation forms (like Buses and Trains) also have negative externalities that never accounted for. We don't shut them down, even though they have problems. We strive to improve them, just as we are doing for EVs.
For example, the buses in my hometown today get 5 miles per gallon on gasoline. I drive a Volt, it gets around 100 miles per gallon. (Since it's mostly powered by wind energy, not gasoline). Ignoring construction costs, there needs to be at least 20 people on any given bus, before that bus is more energy efficient than a modern PHEV / pure EV vehicle in terms of fuel spent.
In NYC, with the density they have, that's probably easily possible. In Michigan, we're nowhere near that density today, and none of us has the $200k-per-person cash necessary today to change that. But many people do have the $10k-per-person cash to replace gasoline cars with electric ones. That's a real impact people can actually make today.
> Which is a good example, because that's literally how you get people out of a hole. You dig your self out -- you stop digging down, and start digging at a 45 degree angle upwards, so you and everyone behind you can safely walk out of that hole.
If you do this in sand, you risk having the structure of the hole collapse around you, trapping you. Either way, we're both taking what is meant to be an idiom a bit too literally.
> That's what we need people to be doing -- continue consuming, but sideways instead of downwards, so their consumption helps fix the problem.
> Then you should be thrilled with what Tesla (and all EVs) are doing. They are eliminating some major externalities.
They're shifting externalities. Mining lithium and raw materials for cars are both environmentally devastating and happen in regions with little to no environmental regulation. Manufacturing is both energy intensive and puts out pollution. I'm sure you're familiar with the conclusion reached by several analyses in which a used vehicle with an ICE will result in less net CO2 output than buying a new electric vehicle.
Many places in the US and China, where Tesla's vehicles are popular, generate electricity from burning coal. We have not come up with a solution that solves the problem of supplying energy to meet the grid's baseline demand with renewable energy.
> In NYC, with the density they have, that's probably easily possible. In Michigan, we're nowhere near that density today, and none of us has the $200k-per-person cash necessary today to change that.
I agree, that is a problem. But again, consuming new electric vehicles instead of used ICE vehicles will dig us deeper into the proverbial CO2 hole.
I'm not sure specifically what dishonesty you're pointing to, nor who "we" are.
As far as I can tell, these problems don't have such simple answers.
You may think it pedantic, but I think talking about "forgoing consumption" is absurd. It's literally impossible, and it's a fundamental truth to our existence. Thus, we shouldn't be anything less than blunt about it.
If you stop consuming, you die. We want sustainable consumption, not the end of consumption.
I disagree. While our consumption habits merit a lot of discussion, we literally have to buy and consume our way out of climate change.
We're not going to _stop_ buying and consuming, and we're not going to manage to reduce it enough to stop climate change without massive economic recession (read: massive human suffering).
You can argue such suffering is overall less than what we will suffer due to catastrophic climate change, but that is not at all obvious.