Getting the Car Out of Carbon Emissions
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2020
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It appears that the long-awaited electric car revolution is finally upon us. Are you ready? Are you excited? Last week, General Motors officially launched the electric version of the Hummer. The Hummer, of course, is the purposely intimidating sport utility vehicle based on the U.S. military's HumVee. Popularized during America's turn-of-the-century oil wars, the Hummer has long been one the personal vehicles that is most like a gigantic middle finger on four wheels. Weighing almost two tons, with 1,000 horsepower, and 0 to 60 m.p.h. acceleration in three seconds, the 2022 Hummer E.V. begs the question: Are we simply going to try to replicate the toxic male, energy-intensive, automobile-centric, 20th century "American way of life" on electricity rather than gas? Or can we imagine and build something better?
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SHOW NOTES:
Listen to Tom Bodett's fantastic personal story, "Inside Passage," on The Moth. You can find more on his "strange, fascinating career" right here.
How fast could we transition our transportation system to electricity if we really wanted to? Subscribe to Andrew Salzberg's newsletter, Decarbonizing Transportation and find out.
What 'net-zero carbon' really means for cities. And how the City of London is planning to get there by 2050, in part, via Ultra Low Emission Zones. (BBC)
The EV Bummer: The Hummer EV may be the "quiet revolution" that GMC's promising — but for all the wrong reasons. (Streetsblog)
Tom is also a co-founder of the non-profit HatchSpace, dedicated to sharpening an appreciation for the work of human hands through the learning, practice, and teaching of woodworking. (Seven Days)
This episode was produced by Aaron Naparstek and edited by Ali Lemer. Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D Design.
Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.
Questions, comments or suggestions? Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Introducing the world's first all electric super truck, the revolutionary GMC Hummer |
| 0:09.8 | EV with no limits, no emissions and no equals, it will leave everything you thought possible in a cloud of dust. |
| 0:19.0 | The quiet revolution begins with the nearly silent all electric propulsion system that offers 1,000 horsepower, 11,500 |
| 0:27.0 | pound feet of torque, and for the brave souls who dare to engage Watts to freedom, |
| 0:36.0 | the thrill of accelerating 0 to 60 in approximately 3 seconds. Hello and welcome to the War on Cars the podcast that is not about the US |
| 0:58.0 | presidential election. I am Aaron Napierstack and yes that was the voice of Bojack Horsman, otherwise known as actor Will Arnett, |
| 1:07.6 | trying to sell you a battery operated version of the infamous Hummer, SUV. of course is the gigantic boxy sport utility vehicle based on a |
| 1:19.8 | US military vehicle called the Humvee. |
| 1:23.3 | infamous for high ground clearance and terrible driver visibility. |
| 1:27.8 | The Hummer first invaded American streets in 1992, |
| 1:31.8 | after its namesake's starring role in the first Persian Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm. |
| 1:39.2 | The Hummer has long been the vehicle brand that best embodies petromasculinity the idea that driving something |
| 1:46.4 | enormous and intimidating burning lots of gasoline and pretending this is somehow patriotic is an integral part of one sense of American manhood. |
| 1:57.0 | If you wanted to pretend like you were a U.S. soldier driving through an occupied city, |
| 2:02.0 | the Hummer was for you. |
| 2:06.0 | Transportation is now the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. |
| 2:10.0 | To the extent that we have any cars and trucks at all, and America currently has about 275 million of them, |
| 2:17.0 | they have to stop burning gas. |
| 2:20.0 | We need to be running our cars and trucks on clean, renewable energy. |
| 2:25.0 | And so here we are in 2020 and on the one hand big automakers |
| 2:31.0 | finally seem to be marketing electric vehicles in a serious way. |
| 2:35.4 | On the other hand, Big Auto is doing what it always does. |
... |
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