The penalties of going green
In the current moves towards “carbon neutrality” it is often forgotten that the means which need to be employed in “saving the planet” may themselves be less than environmentally friendly. One of the arguments fielded against the wholesale adoption of electric cars is that the extraction of the metals used in manufacturing batteries is in itself environmentally destructive and that the electricity used to charge them at present comes mainly from fossil fuel generating plants. There are concerns that their extra weight will cause degradation of infrastructure, increased air pollution from tyre particles, and so on.