EVs can’t fix a global epidemic of ‘car harm,’ study finds

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Electric vehicles promise cleaner air and less climate pollution. But a new analysis suggests that even a global all-EV fleet would perpetuate some of the most devastating impacts of cars and auto infrastructure.

The modern world moves itself around in roughly 2 billion motor vehicles, 65% of which are cars. That’s 16 automobiles for every 100 people, but the rate of car ownership is much higher in richer industrialized countries, where cars give shape to cities and set the patterns of daily life. This fleet requires substantial, ongoing investment in roads and highways, car storage (or “parking,” in the jargon), oil exploration and fuel production, metals mining and manufacturing, insurance and much more.
All of these activities levy regular costs in the form of fatalities and injuries as well as greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. A comprehensive review published last month provides a litany of what the authors call “car harm,” in estimated global totals of death, injury, disease and other miseries, over the course of automotive history. In part because the system “prioritises speed over safety,” as the authors put it, motor vehicles are responsible for one out of 34 deaths, or 1.7 million people every year, either directly or through pollution.

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“It’s quite a grim paper,” acknowledged lead author Patrick Miner, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, whose dissertation focuses on how car culture