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username-1787 t1_je75yeh wrote

Reply to comment by Excelius in Yo! When’s your first grass cut gonna happen this year? by Pancake108

You're not listening. Or at least you've chosen not to address my actual points

  1. Many people can't own an EV right now. Maybe they can't afford one or still have 3 years left on their current car loan or whatever. Maybe they live in an apartment complex with no way to charge their car. Maybe their job requires frequent long distance road trips through regions with poorly developed charging facilities.

However due to their lower price and the ability to charge indoors from a regular wall socket just about anyone with a lawn can probably own electric lawn equipment right now (unless they need a riding mower I guess)

  1. EV's don't spawn out of thin air free of all emissions and environmental damage. The mining industry for lithium, cobalt, copper and dozens of other rare earth minerals required to make EVs work are among the dirtiest, most ecologically destructive industries and in many casss also have terrible human rights records. And it's not just mining for battery materials - you have to ship those raw materials all around the world, you have to manufacture the steel for the frame and the rubber for the tires and every other component in the car. And then once you're using it you have to charge the car, and that energy can either come from burning something (climate change and harmful emissions), damming a river (ecological damage and habitat destruction and emissions from concrete production), splitting an atom (another questionable mining industry and questionable disposal of waste), or solar/wind (more mining of rare earth metals for solar, clearing large swaths of land for solar/wind farms etc). Lawn equipment is smaller and uses fewer materials, meaning the day 0 carbon footprint is wayyyyyy smaller than that of an electric car

And again, I understand that transportation is one of the largest source of emissions for most households (along with heating/cooling) and that EVs are still good and still necessary. But in many circumstances (but not all) the return on investment is going to pencil out well for electrifying those smaller miscellaneous uses like lawn care. And in literally all circumstances not driving at all and getting around via transit, bike or on foot is more sustainable

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Excelius t1_je77tpt wrote

I'm listening, I'm saying you're wrong.

> the return on investment is going to pencil out well for electrifying those smaller miscellaneous uses like lawn care

You've said that without providing any evidence whatsoever.

Whereas I've actually provided you concrete numbers that lawn equipment is less than a fraction of a percent of gasoline usage, which itself is only a portion of transportation carbon emissions, which itself is about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.

You're chasing percentages with too many zeroes at the front to make a bit of difference. Climate change is not an "every little bit helps" problem, the only real solutions involving going after the big ticket items.

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username-1787 t1_je7du47 wrote

Yes it's a big problem but also yes every little bit does help.

Switching to an electric car is a good thing. But for a variety of reasons, not everyone can own an electric car right now. It is still ok to reduce your climate impact elsewhere.

I'll admit I need to go touch grass (pun intended) instead of getting in dumb reddit fights so apologies for the tone. I just think we should be doing everything we to can reduce emissions as soon as possible and as efficiently as possible, and clearly gas powered lawn equipment is an easy thing to phase out

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