Electric Cars & Reducing Atmospheric Carbon

Like so many things in our society these days, this is one of those topics that cuts deep into political and social divisions and these kinds of divisions are changing our society and my blog purpose is “Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society”.

I’m all for improving our overall environment, every living thing on earth will benefit from a cleaner environment. Reducing carbon emissions is an admirable goal and electric cars seem to be all the rage for virtue signaling global warming environmentalists and those that support the “settled science” apocalyptic climate predictions. The question I’m asking myself these days is this…

Are electric cars going to make a significant dent in the carbon emissions both globally and here in the United States to make a real difference and turn this predicted catastrophic apocalypse around?

As far as I know the only way to really answer that is to set aside the “settled science” propaganda and look at some facts. Let’s start with some factual data I found online that seemed reasonable; I did cross reference multiple sites to compare so I wasn’t using something that was way out of whack. I’m not linking to those many sources, feel free to do your own research.

Carbon Production From Fossil Fuel
One gallon of gas produces 8,887 grams of CO₂
An average power plant in the USA produces 0.82 pounds of CO₂ per kWh.

Gasoline Powered Cars
A vehicle that gets 35 mpg produces 253.91 grams of CO₂ per mile.
A vehicle that gets 30 mpg produces 296.23 grams of CO₂ per mile.
A vehicle that gets 25 mpg produces 355.48 grams of CO₂ per mile.
A vehicle that gets 20 mpg produces 444.35 grams of CO₂ per mile.
A vehicle that gets 15 mpg produces 592.47 grams of CO₂ per mile.
That gives you an average carbon production of 388.49 grams of CO₂ per mile.

Tesla Electric Car
It takes about 95 kWh (kilowatt hours) to fully charge a Tesla electric car.
A Tesla can go about 300 miles on a full charge.
Carbon to fully charge a Tesla 77.71 lbs CO₂
Pounds of carbon per mile 0.26 lbs per mile.
Grams of carbon per mile 117.50 grams per mile.
(I’m curious if there are any imbeciles out there that actually think their electric vehicle carbon output per mile is zero)

Conversion Factors
1 Metric Ton = 2,204.60 pounds
1 Gigaton = 1,000,000,000 metric tons
Grams Per Metric Ton = 1,000,000 grams
Grams Per Gigaton = 1,000,000,000,000,000 grams (quadrillion)

Atmospheric Carbon
Total Atmospheric Global Carbon (Gigatons) = 766.1250 Gigatons
Total Atmospheric Global Carbon (Grams) = 766,125,000,000,000,000 Grams (quadrillions)
Total Atmospheric Created By Burning Fossil Fuels (Gigatons) = 6.3375 Gigatons
Total Atmospheric Created By Burning Fossil Fuels (Grams) = 6,337,500,000,000,000 Grams (quadrillions)
United States contribution to global carbon from fossil fuels = 14%
United States Carbon Contribution From Fossil Fuels = 887,250,000,000,000 grams (trillions)
(This is calculated using data presented in the Global Atmospheric Carbon & Fossil Fuels blog post)

Vehicles In Use
Vehicles In Use In The USA = 275,913,237 (Millions)
Vehicles In Use In The World = 1,446,000,000 (Billions)
(For calculation purposes, I’m treating all vehicles as if they’re gasoline vehicles and ignoring other fuels.)

Now we can do some calculations based on the factual data.

Carbon Savings With An Electric Car
Average gasoline carbon production minus the Tesla carbon production:
388.49 grams CO₂/mile – 117.50 grams CO₂/mile = 270.99 grams CO₂/mile

Carbon Impact Per Electric Car
Reduction Of USA Carbon Output Per Electric Car = 0.00000000003%
(That’s 3 Trillionths of 1%)

Reduction Of Global Carbon Output Per Electric Car = 0.0000000000004%
(That’s 4 Hundred Trillionths of 1%)

Remember, those are fractional percentages, those are really, really tiny percentages!

If all the vehicles in the USA were to be converted to electric vehicles overnight, our carbon reduction would be 74,770,668,796 grams or 0.00843% reduction in carbon output from fossil fuels.

If all the vehicles in the world were converted to electric vehicles overnight, the global carbon reduction would be 391,856,470,006 grams or 0.0061831% reduction in carbon output from fossil fuels.

Now lets round those two reduction in carbon values to something that most people can relatively understand, 2 decimal places. They both would round to 0.01% which is one-one-hundredth, so that’s sorta like taking a penny and cutting it into 100 equal portions. If we round this to the nearest whole number we get something that is statistically indistinguishable from zero. So when you purchase a climate change coveted electric car, your contribution to the reduction of carbon being emitted from burning fossil fuels is 0.00000000003% (3 Trillionths of 1%) and mathematically indistinguishable from zero. If all the cars on the planet are switched to electric overnight the change in carbon contributed to the global atmosphere is also statistically indistinguishable from zero.

This very limited reduction of our carbon output doesn’t even address the huge environmental problems unleashed from mining of the Lithium that’s used to create the electric car batteries. It’s extremely toxic to mine Lithium, it’s extremely toxic to dispose of Lithium and there’s an extremely limited supply of known Lithium deposits in the world. What are people going to do with all their electric cars when (not if) the world hits an immovable Lithium wall. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and the cars will eventually no longer hold an electrical charge? I suppose they could flip them upside down in the front yards of their gated community homes and use them as dog houses.

Now it’s time to answer the question posed at the beginning of this post based on the information provided in this post, “Are electric cars going to make a significant dent in the carbon emissions both globally and here in the United States to make a real difference and turn this predicted catastrophic apocalypse around?” the answer has to be no in a very absolute way.

So all you electric car purchasing people, what do you think of your “investment” to do your part to fix our future climate now that you know more facts?

I wonder who the first internet troll will be to tar me with the faux “science denier” smear.

Featured Image: I captured and cropped it from a photo on the Tesla website.

EDIT: I fixed a couple of typo and grammar things.