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Over the last twenty years my decision-making has been increasingly haunted by the ways extractive capitalism foments injustice and ecological collapse. When my old car finally died, I searched for a vehicle that was produced more sustainably and justly than the current system of extraction, manufacturing, shipping and disposal provides.
I was not prepared for car shopping.
I found, instead, vehicles with an array of technological advances: cars that self park, slow down when too close to other vehicles, virtual bumpers, keyless fobs that communicate with the vehicles they're paired with. And, individual built-in screens for passengers.
And wow, the amount of information the dashboard offers. MPG, tire pressure, outdoor temperature, oil pressure, engine temperature. Cardinal directions are pretty much irrelevant with built-in navigation to your destination. You can listen to anything from anywhere on the planet. You can even heat and cool your butt or the butt of whoever is riding shotgun.
There are so many buttons: start the car, shift gears, open windows, stream audio, park, and warm butts. Oh and steering wheels aren’t just for steering any more. Buttons there too so you can control amenities without lifting your hands off the wheel. There’s even a button to warm the steering wheel.
Unfortunately at the time, EVs didn’t come in a stick. So I got a five-year-old EV, base model, with the least amount of electronic bells and whistles.
I came away slightly elated. At least I wasn’t trafficking in all the fluids of an internal combustion engine. At least I could charge this car at home and not rely on gasoline. At least it was a step away from fossil fuels. And, if I got solar panels, then I’d be as fossil fuel free as possible.
I also came away deflated. I wanted a vehicle produced with less harm to my planetary housemates of all species. Is all that technology or EV vehicles themselves possible without extractive, unjust, unsustainable processes?
I became even more deflated after doing some research.
*I wanted to know the total number of vehicles ever produced: we don’t know. But we do know the number of cars produced yearly steadily increases to upward of 70,000.
*I wanted to know what happens to spent tires. Did you know yearly the US alone generates 246 million tires?
*Although vehicles are largely recyclable (80%), I could not find information on the percentage of a new vehicle actually constructed from repurposed materials.
*While modern vehicles have between 30-100 electronic features, there was zero information about what happens to automotive E-waste. Further, the relevant articles were at least five years old. Are the extraction and disposal of electronics components in EVs more sustainable and just than conventional E-waste?
*Since I bought an EV, I wanted to know the extraction impacts of lithium ion batteries. Does the process follow the pattern of oil, coal and natural gas? That is, does it destroy the local ecosystems and economies as those industries do? Are materials mined through slave or child labor? Is there a connection between MMIW at the extraction sites of the EV industry as in the fossil fuel industry? Is there a connection between Bolivia, Chile and Argentina becoming lithium sources in the global economy while Latin America becomes increasingly more lethal for land defenders?
*What about the cobalt sourced from DRC known for its poor human rights record:
“Shockingly, 40,000 children are estimated to be employed in artisanal mines in southern DR Congo... -- reveals that human rights abuses are widespread in the sector and can occur within both industrial and artisanal mines...the country is rated "extreme risk" for child labor, modern slavery, trafficking and occupational health and safety.”
*Finally, in regard to an EV, what is the total carbon footprint if its components are extracted and processed from all over the world? In fact, what are the water, air, and soil footprints of producing these vehicles that are supposedly better for the environment?
What became apparent as I went down the car industry and EV rabbit holes of research is this: electric vehicles emanate from the same shortsighted paradigm of the fossil fuel industry. That I could not find data on the entire lifecycle footprint of an EV is evidence that this solution still comes from the mindset of externalized costs. In other words, we are willing to ignore the true, complete cost of EVs so some individuals can feel like they're doing good for the planet.
Actually that’s why I bought an EV. I wanted to feel like I was doing something good for the planet and its inhabitants. I wanted to trust that EVs were a truly clean solution to the dirty fossil fuel industry. They are not. EV are not produced more justly or sustainably than vehicles with internal combustion engines; a criteria for my car purchase. With my EV, I am aware that I have not changed systems by my individual action. Actually, consider the vast amount of precise minutiae vehicles offer drivers as metaphor for our hyper self-focus. All I've done is bought into a green version of extractive capitalism, which is still all-about-me-ism. It grieves me to participate in systems that elevate my self-interest over the wellbeing of Earth and her inhabitants.
Green solutions derived from extractive capitalism are another manifestation of supremacy in the Environmental Movement of the Global North. Environmental supremacy justifies ecological apartheid, ecosystem destruction, species extinction, unjust labor practices, the disintegration of local communities and cultures, sacrifices the health, safety, well-being of some of our planet-mates for the ‘greater good’ of reduced carbon emissions. Particularly egregious as we know electric vehicles are, by their nature, an unsustainable solution just as dirty as fossil fuels. Perhaps they’re spiritually dirtier than fossil fuels because they are touted as clean by those who know full well their true cost.
This notion of one's personal environmental piety within flawed systems is a part of the false narrative of supremacy. Like the amenities of modern vehicles, focusing on one's individual actions, channels one's gaze on oneself; as though one's actions and choices exist only within one's siloed bubble, within one's vehicle. To advocate green individual choices for a handful of the world's population at an unknown cost to other beings and their homes worldwide, is a form of supremacy. That the extraction and processing of raw materials happens in parts of the world already precarious geopolitically, societally and with little access to basic resources, make that supremacy criminal. Consider too that ecological disruption most severely impacts those already marginalized.
At the brink of extinction, EVs hardly answer what we are called to.
What we are called to is atonement for our reckless regard of the elegant intricate interconnected ecosystems that our lives are literally dependent on and we are arrogantly ignorant of. We are called to lament the damage we have done to ourselves and other beings, including Earth. We are called to reckon with our hubris, in the forms of species supremacy and within that, white supremacy. We are called to stop operating as though any being or part of our home can be sacrificed.
We are called to care deeply about the safety, comfort, and well being of others, not just ourselves. We are called to a radically deeper, wider, more profound understanding of what it means to be each other's keepers and planet-mates in this sacred home shared with nearly 9 million species. We are called to develop a new relationship with our earth and all its inhabitants. This is a divine opportunity to radically reexamine every aspect of how we live rather than adopt strategies to maintain a failing way of life.
Maybe if we pulled ourselves away from the buttons and screens in our cars, from the incessant noise regarding our individual wants and needs, our individual piety, we’d realize that.
