{"id":16280,"date":"2019-05-06T13:09:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T13:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16280"},"modified":"2019-05-06T13:51:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T13:51:48","slug":"why-reducing-carbon-emissions-from-cars-trucks-and-ships-will-be-so-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-reducing-carbon-emissions-from-cars-trucks-and-ships-will-be-so-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Why reducing carbon emissions from cars, trucks and ships will be so hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Keith<\/a>, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a><\/em> and Christopher R. Knittel<\/a>, MIT Sloan School of Management<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A growing number of cities, states and countries aim to dramatically reduce or even eliminate carbon emissions<\/a> to avert catastrophic levels of climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ideas about how to get this done as soon as possible, including those Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have sketched out in the Green New Deal<\/a> framework. But most energy experts see two basic steps as essential.<\/p>\n

First, stop relying on fossil fuels to generate most electricity. Second, the whole world should \u2013 sooner rather than later \u2013 use all that cleaner electricity<\/a> to power transportation, agriculture and the heating and cooling of homes and businesses. The logical goal should be to get as many consumers to buy zero-emission vehicles as quickly as possible, right? <\/p>\n

Maybe not. Our research on consumer behavior<\/a> and the environmental impacts<\/a> of automotive transportation leads us to expect that the transition to electric cars, trucks and ships will be dramatically harder that it sounds. <\/p>\n