The myth of zero emission vehicle

While studying "Environment Law" I came across the term "Zero Emission Vehicle"  (ZEV). The first question that came to my mind was, is it even possible? Can we consume energy without emitting anything? What happens to the energy that we consume? At least, the energy that we use needs to be converted into some other form of energy. The overhyped advertisement of ZEV's created a question in my mind, is "zero-emission" just a catchy phrase like "chemical-free" to attract customers, or does it really mean what it says? It seems that the main purpose of using this phrase is to create an impression in the consumer's mind that the vehicle they are driving is not emitting any harmful gases, that is, it is not doing "any" damage to the environment. These so-called zero-emission vehicles run on some type of batteries. Technically when we use energy stored in a battery they do not emit any harmful gases the way fossil fuels do (for example, carbon monoxide). However, if we analyze it carefully, batteries need to be manufactured and then recharged every time they get discharged. Each of these processes consumes electricity or some other type of energy, they use different chemicals to manufacture batteries, and these chemicals are manufactured in different process plants that use conventional energy sources. The electricity used by batteries might be produced by the process which results in some kind of emission of the very harmful gases which the battery purports not to emit. Therefore, indirectly these batteries do cause emissions which we do not see while driving these vehicles but they do impact the environment. Emissions caused by the use of batteries may be comparatively less than the emissions of fossil fuels, but this does not mean that there is a zero-emission. This means the phrase zero-emission vehicle is an advertising gimmick, just a catchy phrase with no real meaning behind it, designed and used to grab the customer's attention.

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Climate change - a real problem or false propaganda?

Recently I attended a talk at a local ACS (American Chemical Society) section meeting about Global warming. The talk was not the usual one where they tell you about the harmful effects of global warming and climate change. Rather, this talk was about how this whole theory of global warming and climate change is flawed and how this is overhyped by some groups of scientists and organizations (including the UN) to misguide people. It was an interesting talk and it was more interesting to attend it in the local ACS section because as far as I know officially the ACS supports the hypothesis of global warming and comments about its harmful effects in all its editorials and publications. It was interesting to see that they invited a speaker who not only questioned this entire theory but also called it a total hoax. Actually, this is the true spirit of science. Every view should be welcomed, and every voice should be heard, doesn't matter which theory they propose or oppose, they just need to show the relevant data to prove their hypothesis, and the scientific community can debate about it. It really doesn't matter whose theory or hypothesis is being challenged, the name or the status or age of the scientist shouldn't matter only the data should matter.

Climate change is a very popular subject nowadays for debates and discussions. I guess it has become as controversial and sensitive as religion or the existence of god, people argue very passionately for or against this issue. Climate change covers many aspects related to the effect of human actions on the climate of our planet. Global warming is just a part of it, no doubt it has received the most attention, and this is why it is widely debated and questioned. People who try to object to climate change mainly target the issue of global warming. They claim that data presented in support of global warming is wrong or unreliable and that global warming is a completely natural phenomenon that we don't have to worry about. By questioning data for global warming its opponents try to question the phenomena of climate change. Many try to claim that both climate change and global warming are not real issues or problems but false propaganda by some elite group of scientists. Both sides who support or oppose global warming produce lots of data to support their claims and both claim that their data is reliable and the other side's data is incorrect.  

All these issues can be debated and discussed, actually, debates and discussions are the best way to solve such disputes. But I don't think there can be any dispute about the impact of human behavior on our climate. We can clearly see it and even feel it in many places. We are producing enormous amounts of waste by our uncontrolled consumerism, and this waste is bound to have some effect on our environment. We can clearly see the effects of deforestation, water, and air pollution, and poor management of waste in many parts of the world. This has also created many health problems for people. High levels of water and air pollution, and health hazards associated with them are clearly because of human behavior. Climate change doesn't mean only global warming, it means the effect of our actions on the general health of this planet. Continuous abuse of the earth and its resources under the name of development is having an impact on its health. We can definitely debate or discuss the severity of climate change and the steps required to tackle this problem but I think it would be very wrong to assume that human behavior is not having any detrimental effect on the climate of this planet. I hope supporters and opponents of climate change engage in some meaningful discussion, just playing a blame game is not going to help anyone. After all, we are talking about the entire planet here, the only place in our galaxy where we know that life exists. Let's get serious about this issue and try our best to keep our planet in good shape, this will be the greatest gift we can give to our future generations.

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[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]