Say that you live in a society that aims to keep its economy going; and people get around by automobiles.
And you-- you aim to minimize your ecological impacts.
Manufacturers have figured out that "zero-emitting," "green," "clean" and "carbon-neutral" make great marketing terms, especially since no agency has standards on their use. Your federal government gives billions of dollars toward electric vehicles (EVs), their extraction demands, their transistors, their chargers. Your state government has begun moving toward elimination of new gas-powered vehicles and mandates for electric vehicles.
Marketers say that EVs do not emit carbon dioxide while they operate. But isn't that like measuring an elephant's weight by the tip of its tail?
Your mechanic (who's 42 years older than your 1996-model car) can't find a smooth idler pulley for your steering wheel's serpentine belt.
What to do.
Cradle-to-grave impacts
Starting with their computers, I researched automobiles' ecological impacts. To provide infotainment, power steering, power braking, etcetera, modern cars can have 100 or more computers. The vast majority (65% or more) of a computer's lifetime energy use, emissions and toxic waste occur during manufacturing.
One modern car's computers can use 1,400 to 3,000 semiconductor chips. Semiconductors are made from electronic-grade silicon. Silicon is not found in nature in pure form. Pure silicon starts by shipping quartz, a pure carbon (like petroleum coke, from the Tar Sands) and dense wood to a smelter that keeps at 3000 degrees Fahrenheit (1649 Celsius) for six or seven years at a time. This first smelter makes 98% pure silicon. To get electronic-grade silicon, you've got three more refineries to go.
Since solar PVs and industrial wind turbines provide only intermittent power, they cannot maintain 3000 degrees Fahrenheit 24/7. Smelters and refineries are powered by coal, natural gas, nuclear and/or hydro power.
Chemicals & water
To make transistors electrically conductive, they're "doped" with lots of chemicals and rinsed, after each application, with ultra-pure water. Every factory guzzles millions of gallons of water per day-- water that's often taken from farmers and returned toxic to waterways. Manufacturing transistors harms workers and wildlife.
Extractions
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