[ad_1]
Bernie Sanders' Green New Deal plan, which has just been published, is huge: $ 16 trillion and dozens of different clean energy and climate change adaptation programs. But one of his most modest proposals comes as a spectacular idea.
It is his proposal to ensure that school buses stop poisoning our children.
Is this an exaggeration? Just a little bit.
And Sanders is not alone. Last month, Kamala Harris introduced (along with Sanders, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and other co-sponsors) the Senate Clean School Buses Act. Representative Jahana Hayes (D-CT) introduced her to the House. The bill would allow spending of up to $ 1 billion to help districts replace their diesel school buses with electric buses.
It's a small idea, but it may be a fairly consistent consequence. Air pollution is a huge health hazard – and curiously neglected. This has been clear for a long time, but recent research has further clarified it.
Meta-analyzes of hundreds of studies have found strong associations between air pollution, even at low levels, and fatal cardio-respiratory diseases. A recent study looked at the effects of diesel cars supposed to meet emissions guidelines – which was not the case – and suggested that even the slight increase The air caused by a car cheated meant more hospitalized children and more premature babies. Another study has shown that air pollution greatly aggravates dementia. Another revealed that dust pollution in Africa led to a 22% increase in infant mortality.
And during hospitalizations, With life-threatening emergencies and deaths being the most dramatic effects of air pollution, there is plenty of evidence that we too are affected. This has led some researchers to say that there is no safe level of air pollution.
Where do school buses come in?
About 55 percent of US public school students drive to school – and 95 percent of these buses run on diesel. The researchers measured pollutant levels in these buses, which are five to ten times higher than pollution levels elsewhere. There is preliminary evidence that the modernization of school buses to pollute less improves children's test results, which is hardly surprising: the effects of air pollution on brain development are well established.
Enter the electric buses. As my colleague David Roberts has said, electric buses are not a great environmental benefit; they are also a good deal all around. Firstly, because they are much larger than electric cars, they can carry bigger batteries and many options soon available on the market have a long range – at least 200 km, which is far farther than the most school buses. trip. Second, they pollute much less, even though electricity comes from coal plants.
Until recently, the technology of the battery was not quite at the rendezvous of electric buses. But electric bus technology has been a hotbed of innovation in recent years. An electric bus set a new record by traveling over 1,000 kilometers with a load. The electric bus company Proterra has published its patents for a fast charging system capable of completely charging a bus in 10 minutes. Volvo and Hyundai have developed electric buses. China has replaced a large part of its public transport network with electric buses.
And their lifecycle costs – the cost of buses for the government from purchase to decommissioning – are competitive with the life-cycle costs of diesel buses, although initial costs be higher. This is why some cities are already opting for electric buses, while others are not paying high initial costs. According to Sanders' plan, the federal government would pay for the replacement.
In short, we can stop injecting pollutants into our children's lungs that are harmful to health and education, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save school districts money.
And an investment like this will probably help electric buses to integrate with the general public. Replacing our school buses with electric buses could give the industry, with all its innovations, the opportunity to prove itself – and then conquer the municipalities and markets for private buses.
Sanders' Green New Deal proposals are exciting, and some have a lot more potential as the bus proposal to combat climate change. But the bus proposal deserves special attention. It will enable 24 million children to breathe cleaner air and support the development of emerging green technology – electric buses – that the world needs. The net costs to the government could be zero (due to the lower long-term costs of electric buses), and the net benefits to society are enormous.
Sometimes a serious look at politics gives obvious results. It is one of them – and whatever the president, I hope it will become political.
Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter. Twice a week, you will have an overview of ideas and solutions to our greatest challenges: improving public health, reducing human and animal suffering, mitigating catastrophic risks and, to put it simply, improving the quality of things.
[ad_2]
Source link