Electric Cars Are More
Polluting than Gas Guzzlers
Electric cars are all the rage in China, but they may not be helping to
clean up the environment or protect human health from pollution.
It’s
unspoken, but every driver gliding around town behind the wheel of a Prius is
thinking the same thing: “I’m saving the planet. What are you doing, you
dirty-fossil-fuel burner?”
What’s
implied is that hybrid or electric-car drivers are also saving human lives,
since the fuel-burning internal combustion engines that power conventional
vehicles emit carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter including acids,
organic chemicals as well as dust and soil; this pollution has been linked to
respiratory and heart problems and cancer.
