Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 257

The shift to electric vehicles seems to be a sensible solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions from transport and urban pollution. Why might it not be the panacea for global warming that some perceive it to be? How else could transport emissions be radically reduced, and what changes would be needed to bring it about?

Yet we should remember that electric cars are still cars – they have to be manufactured, powered and disposed of at the end of their life, they need parking spaces and roads, and they bring about traffic congestion. Therefore they continue to generate similar social and environmental problems to other types of car. In addition, electric vehicles are environmentally beneficial only if the electricity they use is produced from low- or zero-carbon sources such as Norway’s hydro-electric system or renewables such as solar or wind. And even here the mass take-up of electric cars will require a major expansion of electricity generation capacity. Where coal, oil and gas remain key planks of a country’s energy mix, the environmental benefits of electric cars may not be so clear.

Dennis and Urry argue that the twentieth-century ‘car system’ of mass individual ownership of petrol-fuelled vehicles driving around extensive road networks may not survive in its present form, and they are likely to be correct. But the ‘electric car system’ of the future, despite playing a key role in reducing CO₂ emissions, currently looks a lot like the old oil-based one. At least in the short to medium term, the private car looks set to retain its symbolic value as part of the transition to independent living and adulthood as well as embodying the modern ideals of freedom and liberation.