 | Thursday, August 14, 2025 | |  | Thursday, August 14, 2025 | | Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. | | | | | This week: |  | Are EVs really greener than gas-powered cars? | | | | | The Big Picture: How Seville beats the heat | | |  | Cable cars and gondolas as public transit | | | | | Are EVs really greener than gas-powered cars? | | |  | Carolyn Inch of Ottawa bought a used Tesla Model 3 recently, and started getting suggestions from friends, family and neighbours that this choice might be bad for the planet. | Ottawa's Carolyn Inch and her partner recently bought a used Tesla Model 3, but quickly started hearing from family, friends and neighbours that their choice was actually bad for the planet.
"There's just been a series of question marks raised about the environmental wisdom of our choice," Inch told CBC's climate solutions podcast What On Earth.
But she's not alone.
Rachel Doran, the executive director of Clean Energy Canada, says that as EVs have become more popular — 17 per cent of all new cars sold in Canada in 2024 were EVs, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) — so too has the misinformation about them.
"I think there's various sources for this," she said, "and maybe the best place to start is not assuming people have bad intentions, but rather just they're looking for information and facts and it's hard to know these days as you sift through things."
The IEA says EVs are key to decarbonizing road transportation, which is a significant source of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
But one of the things Inch was told is that her EV produced more emissions in manufacturing than what it would ultimately reduce.
That's not the case, says Doran.
"Overall, EVs have been shown to emit as much as 71 per cent less carbon pollution than gas cars, including pollution from mining, manufacturing and driving," she said.
That's comparing the emissions produced over their respective lifecycles, based on medium-sized vehicles that were manufactured in 2023 and had been driven for at least 250,000 kilometres, according to Bloomberg.
She says it's true mining the materials for electric vehicle batteries, including lithium and other critical minerals, and manufacturing them does create more emissions than combustion engine vehicle production.
"But, what is useful to measure is how many kilometers do you have to drive until you come out even and you start driving on emissions savings for an electric vehicle," she said.
That point at which you start to break even depends on the type of electric vehicle and other factors like where it was manufactured and whether your electricity comes from coal, gas or renewable energy.
The International Council on Clean Transportation says that an EV charged on an average European power grid, where almost half of electricity is generated using renewable sources, would take about 18,000 km of driving to start paying back its emissions debt, which is about one or two years of driving. In the U.S., it'd be closer to 20,000 km.
But let's take a Tesla Model 3, for example, which is what Inch and her partner own.
A 2021 analysis by Reuters News Agency found you would have to drive a new Tesla Model 3 nearly 22,000 kilometres using a U.S. mix of electricity sources for the emissions reduction to start balancing out what was produced in manufacturing.
But Inch bought her Tesla used with about 49,000 kilometres on it, so she may already be coming out ahead of the game.
Doran says she thinks EV production will continue to improve and that the emissions associated with manufacturing will drop once more countries that use cleaner energy sources ramp up electric vehicle battery production.
Right now, China is the world leader in EV battery production, but produces most of its electricity using coal.
Doran points out that while there is room for improvement on the initial emissions produced by EVs, it's the battery that makes EVs more energy efficient overall compared to combustion engine vehicles.
"As you're burning gas in a traditional fossil fuel-powered car, you're losing a lot of the useful energy through that combustion trying to move," she said.
"Because electric vehicles kind of can make that connection more directly, they convert about 77 to 91 per cent of the energy stored in their batteries into power for movement, whereas gasoline cars convert about 17 to 21 per cent."
While batteries make electric vehicles more efficient, they are also what makes them heavier. One other claim that Inch has faced since buying hers is that it weighs too much and that EVs are causing more damage to the roads.
Not so, says Doran. She explains that studies have shown that damage to roads is overwhelmingly caused by large vehicles, like buses and transport trucks, but road wear from cars, including EVs, is quite low.
Doran says the benefits of electric vehicles are only increasing.
But if you're "EV-curious" and have some trouble navigating conversations about your decision to drive an electric vehicle, she has some simple advice:
"Don't hesitate to try to talk to a friend or neighbor or somebody sitting charging an electric car at a car station because lots of EV drivers are keen to talk about some of their experience and some of the research they did before they made the choice."
You can listen to the full segment from What On Earth on the CBC listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode also includes an interview with Fredericton's Carl Duivenvoorden about the trials and tribulations of driving across Canada in an EV.
You can listen to the full segment from What On Earth on the CBC listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode also includes an interview with Fredericton's Carl Duivenvoorden about the trials and tribulations of driving across Canada in an EV. |  | — Nick Logan | | | The web version of this week's newsletter can be found here. Read old issues here. The CBC News climate page is here. | | | Check out our podcast and radio show. In one of our newest episodes: Polar bears, bowhead whales, melting sea ice — the students on these ships see it all. We hear from two students sailing across the Davis Strait from Nunavut to Greenland about what life is like onboard the Students On Ice ships. We also hear from a former student about how her trip sparked her career in climate solutions, and from the founder of the program about how the polar regions have changed since he started the expeditions 25 years ago. |  | What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app, or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. | Have a compelling personal story about climate change you want to share with CBC News? Pitch a First Person column here. | | | Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on wildfire smoke and active fires across the country. Set your location for information on air quality and to find out how today's temperatures compare to historical trends. | | | | | Reader Feedback | Last week, we had a story about a project in Nova Scotia exploring the potential of charred wood to help farmers and store carbon.
Heather Zwicker responded: "Just popping you a note towards a weird rabbit hole as to say that a source of carbon I wish to contribute to Nova Scotia's flora will be my cremains.… Also … aquamation has a tiny environmental impact and creates the same end result as cremation when it comes to bodies."
Unfortunately, pyrolysis of human bodies to produce biochar isn't currently available. Unlike pyrolysis, cremation removes all carbon content from a body, and the heat to burn the body comes from burning natural gas, producing lots of carbon emissions in the process. Aquamation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis or flameless cremation, does have a smaller environmental impact. In both cases, the "cremains" are generally too salty and acidic to be added directly to soil, although there are techniques to add them to plantings.
| Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. (And feel free to send photos too!) | | | Hot and bothered: Provocative reads from around the web | | | "Balkonkraftwerke" is having a moment. The German term for balcony solar panels that plug in to an outlet may be the next big thing to supplement your electricity. But as The New York Times and The Washington Post explore, even this simple tool to save you dozens of dollars comes with big hurdles. | | | | | It turns out we're not that good at understanding which of our climate decisions have a big impact, and which ones don't, according to a new study. Researchers found most people ranked personal choices that do have a big impact — like owning a pet dog or avoiding flights — as much less important than interventions with a smaller impact. | | | | | | | As the climate warms, some airplanes may need to carry fewer passengers or less cargo. That means you could get bumped from a flight during heat waves, Yale Climate Connections explains. | | | | | | | The Big Picture: How Seville beats the heat | | |  | Street shades are strung up throughout downtown Seville to protect pedestrians from the sun. The Spanish city, nicknamed the "frying pan of Spain" for its extreme summer temperatures, was recently named a winner of the 2025 edition of Haciendo misión, a competition between Spanish cities on the climate transition. The shades are among many adaptations aimed at cooling the city that contributed to that honour. Others include qanat, an ancient Persian technique based on a system of underground water canals that store "coolness" at night and bioclimactic air conditioning in schools. You can read more about these solutions here.
— Emily Chung | | | Could cable cars help fix traffic problems in Canada? | | |  | Cable cars are seen in Santiago, Chile, on Feb. 13, 2022. | What if your daily commute didn't mean enduring bumper-to-bumper traffic but soaring above it instead?
It sounds like wishful thinking, but in parts of the world, cable cars or gondolas — typically seen at ski resorts or tourist spots — are actually used as public transit, helping people get around in their day-to-day lives.
For example, Bogotá, Colombia, relies on the TransMiCable to transport people daily. In Oregon, the Portland Aerial Tram averages 9,000 rides each weekday, while Mi Teléferico in La Paz, Bolivia, has a capacity of as many as 34,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
As Canadian cities grapple with "brutal" congestion and spotty transit service, some transportation planners believe cable cars could offer this country an affordable and efficient fix.
"It's not very expensive to operate," Reece Martin, a Toronto-based independent transportation planner, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury. "And frankly, they're not very expensive to build, either."
"You install some poles, you string some cable and then it's good to go," Martin said. "It's a lot faster to build than some of the transit projects we might be familiar with."
Jonathan English, a transportation policy consultant with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, agrees. He says cable cars are "in theory ... potentially significantly cheaper than building an elevated train."
For commuters, says Martin, it means no stoplights, no traffic jams. Just climb in, glide over the bustle and arrive calm and stress-free.
Proposed cable car lines in B.C., Ontario
In Burnaby, B.C., a gondola commute is on the brink of becoming reality.
Councillor Daniel Tetrault, vice-chair of the city's transportation committee, says the Burnaby Mountain Gondola is "ready to go." |  | Pictured here are artist renderings of the Burnaby Mountain gondola. | The new aerial link would hook up a SkyTrain station with the top of Burnaby Mountain, home to Simon Fraser University's main campus and a growing community of roughly 7,000 residents. The ride would support about 25,000 trips every weekday.
"I'm a former SFU student," Tetrault said. "I remember anytime it's snowing or the weather's iffy, the bus service was unreliable … [a gondola is] an important opportunity that really could connect the university and the rest of Burnaby and the region."
Beyond convenience, the environmental impact is huge, says Tetrault. According to TransLink, Metro Vancouver's public transit authority and a proponent of the project, a gondola runs on electricity and a single trip would emit just five grams of carbon dioxide per passenger — a sharp contrast to the roughly 400 grams produced by a diesel bus.
Environmental assessments, community consultations, infrastructure design and route selection are complete but Tetrault says the project is currently at a standstill, awaiting funding from the provincial and federal governments. For it to move forward, he adds, it must be recognized as a priority and included in an investment plan approved by the TransLink board and the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation.
TransLink confirmed in a statement to the CBC that the Burnaby Mountain Gondola is part of its Ten-Year Access for Everyone plan but remains unfunded.
"The next step for the project is to complete the business case and acquire funding through a future Investment Plan update," the statement said.
While gondolas are ideal for steep terrain like Burnaby Mountain, English says they could also "potentially" help untangle congestion in busy city centres.
He sees gondolas as a potential solution in parts of Toronto that have rapid residential growth but "slow, crowded or unreliable" transit access.
Just east of Toronto, in Oshawa, Ont., a proposed Aerial Cable Car Transit line would run along Simcoe Street. Following a review, regional staff recommended the cable car over traditional buses, citing advantages such as greater speed and reliability.
As well, Simcoe Street's narrow roadway and densely packed buildings make expanding traditional bus service challenging. Adding a new bus route could mean reducing parking spaces, eliminating traffic lanes and expropriating private property.
English is realistic, saying there's no "silver bullet" to fix congestion. He says gondolas work well in some situations but not everywhere. Still, he calls them "one tool in the toolbox" and says having more options is always better.
Martin believes the biggest barrier to adopting gondolas as public transit is people's perception of them.
"It's really an issue of just kind of getting one built," said Martin. "So that you have an example to point to and say, 'Hey, they did it over there and it's very successful and it was a good investment.'"
— Catherine Zhu | | | | | Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to whatonearth@cbc.ca. See you all in the new year!
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
Photo credits: Carolyn Inch; Romain Chauvet/CBC; Javier Torres/AFP via Getty Images; TransLink | | |  | Share this newsletter
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