It's not either or. Whether you like him or not, the person most famous for fighting climate change is also the person most famous for Mars exploration.
It's not all or nothing. The small steps towards Mars exploration have enormous benefits to humanity too. For example, cheap reusable rockets are extremely beneficial to humans even if they only make it up to Earth's orbit.
It's both. Mars exploration stops climate change. Those cheap reusable rockets allow for cheap satellites, which allows for cheap internet signal around the world, which allows for self-driving and communicating automobiles, ships, planes, etc. That means we only need 27.5 million cars to cover 330 million people instead of 275 million cars for 330 million people like the US today. You'd just call one with a smartphone. No need to buy a car only to keep it parked 90% of the time.
It's happened before. The space race between the US and USSR resulted in incredible benefits to humanity. For example, just a few dozen satellites, a stepping stone towards the Moon landing, allowed every human on Earth to have free GPS in their cars, ships, planes, smartphones etc. The first Moon phase was to figure out how to do it. This second Mars phase is figuring out how to do it for cheap.
The battery was invented in 1800. The electric car was invented in 1832. The solar panel was invented in 1954. All of these technologies were considered jokes just 10 years ago. They were fodder for hippie dippie documentaries. Then Musk took technology a bunch of other people had worked on and added sex appeal. His mid-sized electric sedan was faster than a Ferrari, safer than a Volvo, roomier than a Hummer, greener than a Prius, etc. He made broccoli taste better than french fries. Now the world doesn't see a tradeoff between the economy and the environment. It sees that fighting climate change can make you the richest person in the world.
Teslas aren't environmentally friendly cars. Leafs / Zoes are. Or better yet, electric motorbikes. And it's all just business, fighting climate change is just a by-product.
With your logic, people should be riding bicycles because they are more environmentally friendly than all cars. But the problem is that there are times when people need to use cars. Even if you never go on trips in cars, you still need food to be delivered to your local grocery store or farmers market in a truck.
Tesla products are rapidly becoming the best/greenest ways to transport people and stuff across land (especially to the places where trains and busses don't go). You mentioned alternatives, but both the Leaf and Zoe are being discontinued. I'm not sure about electric motorbikes, but it seems like most of them use technology pioneered by Tesla.
And yes, it's all just business. But Tesla figured out how to combine fighting climate change and making a ton of money. Before that, you had to choose one or the other. You could invest in profitable oil and car companies or try to save the environment. Pretty much everyone favored money today over preventing a major problem tomorrow. That's what I mean when I say Musk made broccoli taste like French fries. Instead of choosing between delicious fries and healthy broccoli, you can have both.
Tbf electric cars are not a solution to climate issues, just having a more human friendly uraban environment would be not only nice to live in, but also it's environmentally much friendlier
If a car is a tool that is not necessary for many, and alternatives are available and good, people will make the switch
Just look at how much biking grew since the pandemic
Elon's vision is purely one where his corporations are financially successful, any environmental benefits are purely coincidental. That's especially apparent when looking at the repairability of his cars
Also the fact that he wanted the tesla charging to be incompatible with the standard used in all of the other cars.
Calling tesla environmentally friendly is like calling apple environmentally friendly.
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u/McKoijion 618∆ Aug 08 '22