Smart Cities

Here's an interaction I witnessed at an academic conference on "Smart and Sustainable Cities." I've told this story many times to colleagues, friends, and fellow environmental researchers, so I decided to illustrate it.

The point? Advocacy for electric vehicles is largely based on claims of reducing environmental impact. But the current EV rollout effort does nothing to address limits on total wealth and resource demand. In fact, I believe the average Tesla driver feels a sense of eco-righteousness, freeing them from worry about their ecological footprint.

When this question about outreach to wealthy people came from the audience, it was treated as awkward and out of place. But I think it touched on the exact socio-ecological blindspot that is actively undoing all the potential benefits of decarbonization technology.