Trump's Ukraine Shakedown Highlights Electric Vehicles Not Best Solution to Climate Change

Mass transit and infill urban housing near jobs to reduce commuting far better environmental solution

Trump’s shakedown of Zelenskyy for a share of Ukraine’s rare earth metals - critical components of electric vehicles and other “sustainable” enviro solutions like solar panels - highlights the reality that EVs are, at best, a second-best solution for dealing with the threat of climate change.

Trump’s trade war with Canada has highlighted the reality that EVs heavily depend on NON-renewable mining resources, as Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has promised to cut off nickel shipments, another critical metal used in EV production.

Here’s the dirty secret about electric vehicles: they use more climate-destroying resources and fossil fuel energy to build than traditional combustion vehicles. While day-to-day energy use, once built, means EVs eventually produce fewer climate emissions over their lifespan, they are still terrible contributors to climate change in their production. Estimates are that EVs use 1.3 to 2 times as many greenhouse gasses in their output.

And it’s worth remembering that the electricity used to power EVs still comes overwhelmingly from non-renewable sources - 78.5% of electricity production nationally. Disposing of EVs is projected to be a bit of a nightmare given the toxic metals they are composed of, which will add additional costs.

EV Rare Earth Metal Demands Are a Human Rights Disaster

And as Trump’s demands for rare earth metals from Ukraine highlight, the battle to control the rare metals that go into EVS may usher in a new era of imperialist conflict as the U.S., China, and Russia battle for dominance of additional countries with ample supplies of those resources.

That cute electric car may help drive our next economic and possibly military wars to control cobalt mines in the Congo, Borate in Chile, and Vanadium in South Africa - and give China, which holds a large portion of currently known reserves, a whip hand in negotiations over the future.

Making EV production even more problematic are the chronic human rights abuses documented in the mining and processing of those rare earth metals. For example, a 2024 report from the nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) “documented 631 allegations of human rights abuses since 2010 for seven key minerals used in electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries, and renewable energy technologies.” In particular, Cobalt is sometimes referred to as “the blood diamond of batteries” because of the abusive working conditions involved in mining it.

Human rights activists have highlighted incidents of assaults, child labor, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and environmental crimes such as the pollution of local drinking water in such production.

Mass Transit and Urban Housing are Better Focus for Fighting Climate Change

Getting rid of cars - or at least limiting their need - is a far better focus for environementalists. Right now, New York City residents contribute less than two-thirds of the climate emissions as the average American, mainly because the majority of NYC residents don’t own a car, as the following table highlights.

Mass transit is a key investment for fighting climate change. If deployed more widely in the U.S., it would be a far greater focus than EVs for reducing climate change and our dependence on volatile overseas heavy metals.

Of course, urban areas are not dense enough to support good mass transit systems in many places, so a long-term climate change plan must focus on expanding infill housing in existing urban areas. This requires financial investments by the government, as well as serious zoning reforms to allow higher-density developments in blue cities.

If people can move closer to their jobs, they can reduce their commute times or take mass transit - or even better, be able to walk or bike to work, shopping, and entertainment options. Many YIMBYs sell upzoning urban areas to reduce housing costs - which they are - but from an environmental viewpoint, those lower housing costs are also a means to get people living a lifestyle with less driving and lower climate change emissions.

Given the existing sprawl of US cities and suburbs, expanding electric vehicle use is no doubt required to reduce our emissions and stave off climate disaster. However, EVs will continue to suck in toxic heavy metals and drive imperialist conflicts and human rights violations, so there should be a far greater focus on the more dramatic environmental gains from reducing driving altogether through expanded mass transit options and denser urban housing.