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Shifting to EVs is not enough. The deeper problem is our car dependence.
Our government should be doing much more to get Canadians out of cars altogether
Paris Marx ·
for CBC Opinion ·
Posted: Jul 31, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: July 31
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes an announcement highlighting Budget 2022 investments in electric vehicle infrastructure in Victoria in April. Electric vehicles will be part of the solution, writes Paris Marx, but meeting the challenge of climate change will require taking on the dominance of cars. (Ken Mizokoshi/CBC)
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a bold claim: Canada "isn't just going to be a global player in EVs, … we get to be global leaders." Over the past year, the federal government has been announcing a series of deals with auto companies and suppliers aimed at growing the domestic electric vehicle industry.
With gas prices soaring above $2 a litre for the first time in May and Atlantic Canada's record temperatures serving as yet another reminder that the world is rapidly warming, it's clear that we desperately need to rethink our transport system. But is the government placing too much focus on electric vehicles instead of encouraging more people to ditch their cars altogether?
U.S. electric vehicle tax credit could be expanded to include Canadian-assembled EVs
Electric vehicles tend to produce fewer emissions over their life cycles than equivalent vehicles powered by fossil fuels, but the framing often used by government and industry that they are "zero emissions" is misleading.
Unlike a conventional vehicle whose emissions come from burning fossil fuels, a greater share of an EV's emissions come from its production; more specifically, its battery. This is the side of the EV that often doesn't make it into the ad campaigns.
The International Energy Agency estimates that there will need to be a significant increase in mineral extraction to fuel a green transition that places emphasis on EVs over alternatives like public transit and cycling. For example, demand for lithium is expected to soar by 4,200 per cent and cobalt by 2,100 per cent.
Greenwashing operations
Those figures sound great to the mining industry, which hopes to use EVs to greenwash its operations, but they have severe human and environmental consequences throughout the supply chain.
The "lithium triangle" in South America is poised to be a significant source of the mineral, but already it's polluting the water and lowering the water table, threatening fresh water access for local communities.
Meanwhile, the site of much of the world's cobalt extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) experiences high rates of birth defects, contaminated water, and around 40,000 children are believed to work in artisanal mines. In 2019, electric carmaker Tesla was among a number of companies named in a lawsuit over child deaths at cobalt mines in the DRC.
But this isn't just happening abroad. Part of the prime minister's pitch for Canada to be a global EV leader is to increase mining as well. Lithium mines in Quebec have already been responsible for environmental accidents and subject to community opposition, while Indigenous opposition is already mounting over plans to exploit the Ring of Fire in Ontario. We're sure to see more as provinces across the country look for mineral deposits to exploit.
Unlike a conventional vehicle whose emissions come from burning fossil fuels, a greater share of an
EV’s emissions come from its production; more specifically, its battery, writes Paris Marx. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
In 2019, transportation accounted for 25 per cent of national emissions, second only to oil and gas, and that had grown by 54 per cent since 1990, in part because people were driving more and buying big trucks and SUVs instead of sedans. There's a need to address the transport sector's emissions, but the problem goes beyond tailpipe emissions.
According to Statistics Canada, 73.7 per cent of Canadians live in urban areas, but the majority are in the suburbs, not the downtown core, and those suburbs keep growing. That reality is the product of decades of government policy that incentivized suburban living and prioritized cars above other forms of mobility.
A study released in January found that 83 per cent of Canadians own or lease a vehicle, and 81 per cent of car owners felt it would be impossible not to because so many of our communities have been built to deny residents a reliable alternative. Those suburban communities also have higher carbon footprints than denser urban areas.
But car dependence isn't just an environmental problem. In 2020, an estimated 1,745 people died in motor vehicle collisions and another 7,868 people sustained serious injuries. Commute times are also getting longer in Canadian cities, and sitting in a car is associated with a whole range of adverse health impacts.
On top of that, owning a car is more expensive than many people realize. Before the pandemic, inflation and soaring fuel costs, the Canadian Automotive Association estimated the annual cost of vehicle ownership was between $8,600 and $13,000, depending on the model. It's surely higher now.
An unprecedented opportunity
The climate crisis offers us an unprecedented opportunity to re-imagine how we move and how we build our communities, but the push for electric vehicles is about making the smallest possible change — one that likely won't deliver the scale of emissions reductions we need. Meeting the scale of that challenge requires taking on the dominance of cars in our communities.
The federal government has increased transit funding, but much of the money won't flow until 2026 and beyond. Meanwhile, subways in the major cities need expansions to keep up with demand, municipal bus systems need operations funding to provide a more frequent and reliable service, and many Canadian cities lack proper cycling infrastructure.
Similarly, the Liberals finally approved VIA Rail's high-frequency rail plan between Toronto and Quebec City after five years of delay, but even then it won't arrive until the early 2030s. And it still won't match the high-speed rail being built in countries across Asia and Europe. The ambition we need simply isn't there.
Electric vehicles will be part of the solution, but the deeper problem is how many Canadians are dependent on their cars with no reliable alternatives. Governments serious about climate action need to change that.
Two of the problems for Canadians even switching to EV vehicles are the climate - despite global warming, Canada is still a cold country for at least half a year. EV vehicles don't work all that well in cold climates and getting stuck in a snowstorm lineup could be fatal.
Also, Canada is the second largest country in the world with hundreds of kms between major cities. Building infrastructure, like the Toronto-Quebec City rail would be very expensive on a national scale. For a country that is massively in debt like Canada, this is a poor time to be experimenting with unproven methods of transportation.
Coral cover increases in parts of Great Barrier Reef
By Danielle Haynes
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured a view of these three reefs in Australia's Great Barrier Reef on October 12, 2015. File Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo
Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The coral cover in the northern and central sections of the Great Barrier Reef is at its highest amount in at least 36 years, Australian marine scientists announced Thursday.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science said the section of the reef north of Cooktown increased from 27% cover in 2021 to 36% in 2022, while the central area increased from 26% to 33%. The government agency said it's the highest amount of cover in those areas since it started tracking the reef's size 36 years ago.
Consequently, coral coverage might be at its highest in a century, for all we know.
The coral cover in the southern region -- which AIMS defined as between Proserpine to Gladstone -- decreased from 38% in 2021 to 34%.
The Australian government and conservations have been particularly concerned about the health of the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system.
Decades of mass coral bleaching and predation by crown-of-thorns starfish -- which feed on coral -- have caused large swaths of the system to die off.
Australia has spent billions to protect the reef and launched a plan to rehab environmental effects on the system by 2050.
AIMS CEO Paul Hardisty said the gains of cover and loss in other areas shows how dynamic the ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef is.
"A third of the gain in coral cover we recorded in the south in 2020/21 was lost last year due to ongoing crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks," he said.
"This shows how vulnerable the Reef is to the continued acute and severe disturbances that are occurring more often, and are longer-lasting."
Hardisty said the Great Barrier Reef underwent a bleaching event this year, the fourth in seven years and the first to take place during a La Niña event.
He said the scientists' understanding of how the ecosystem responds to temperature stress and bleaching constantly evolves.
"In our 36 years of monitoring the condition of the Great Barrier Reef we have not seen bleaching events so close together," he said.
"The 2020 and 2022 bleaching events, while extensive, didn't reach the intensity of the 2016 and 2017 events and, as a result, we have seen less mortality. These latest results demonstrate the Reef can still recover in periods free of intense disturbances."
AIMS monitoring program team leader Mike Emslie said climate change is increasing the frequency and length of marine heatwaves, which affects Great Barrier Reef cover.
"The increasing frequency of warming ocean temperatures and the extent of mass bleaching events highlights the critical threat climate change poses to all reefs, particularly while crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and tropical cyclones are also occurring. Future disturbance can reverse the observed recovery in a short amount of time," he said.
Despite the ongoing threat to the Great Barrier Reef and lobbying by the Australian government, UNESCO declined last year to list the ecosystem as "endangered."
The Great Barrier Reef
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