Electric cars are environmentally friendly, but they’re not very popular due to mistrust of their performance and financial burden. This is because modern people only care about the environment when it directly benefits them.
The recent haze of fine dust has made people more aware of environmental protection. In the past, a television program has raised awareness about environmental pollution by showing celebrities who minimize their trash and recycle what they throw away. As a result, consumers are choosing eco-friendly products that emit fewer pollutants for the same price, and making an effort to eat organic food for health reasons. For these environmentally conscious people, electric cars are an ideal option.
However, the reality is that electric cars have not gained much popularity. How often have you seen an electric car in your daily life? There’s not much difference between an electric car and a regular gasoline car, so even if you did, you might not recognize it. Also, how many people do you know who are looking to buy an electric car? How many times have you seen an electric car in a television commercial? You may have heard the name of the electric car company Tesla in the media, but you probably don’t see electric cars in your daily life. Why aren’t we seeing more of these environmentally friendly cars around us?
When you ask people who are looking to buy a car, or those who have bought a car since the introduction of electric vehicles, about buying an electric car, the majority of them are frustrated. They often express doubts such as “I don’t trust the performance of electric cars yet,” or “If I buy an electric car, how will I charge it?” Economic complaints such as “electric cars are more expensive than I thought” and “government subsidy policies are not organized” are also frequently mentioned. Some people even ask: “Electricity for EVs is still generated by burning fossil fuels, so are EVs really eco-friendly?” These negative consumer views aren’t entirely unwarranted. In fact, electric vehicles face a number of obstacles that need to be overcome.
So, what happened to our environmental consciousness? Why is it that modern people, who have been working hard to reduce waste and recycle to protect the environment, are so apathetic towards electric vehicles? If we look deeper into the environmental consciousness of modern people, we can find the reason.
Being concerned about particulate matter, using eco-friendly products, and eating organic food are behaviors that are primarily aimed at protecting the environment. But if you look deeper, you’ll find that these behaviors also have benefits for humans themselves. For example, you might be worried about your bronchial health, or you might be afraid of environmental hormones, and you’re trying to protect the environment in order to live a longer, healthier life. In the end, people care more about protecting the environment when it benefits them. From this perspective, it’s easy to see why electric cars aren’t catching on. Electric cars are environmentally friendly, but they don’t offer much in the way of short-term benefits to the user. On the contrary, they can put a burden on the user in terms of performance and charging. That’s why people aren’t very interested in them. This is why interest in electric cars is more of a curiosity than a purchase. This is also the fundamental reason why consumers make excuses and turn away even when the government offers various incentives to promote the popularization of electric vehicles. At the same time, it is also an example of human selfishness toward environmental protection.
The selfishness of humans toward the environment revealed through electric vehicles is not surprising. The history of science and technology is a history of environmental destruction, and humans have severely damaged the planet’s environment. From the dawn of agriculture, rivers and streams have been modified to suit our needs, and the invention of the internal combustion engine led to the burning of coal, creating pollutants such as particulate matter. We’ve even gone so far as to genetically modify natural life forms. The fact that we have to wear masks to breathe bad air, buy water to drink, and suffer the consequences of global warming may be the punishment we deserve for all that we have done to nature.
But our attitude toward these punishments is far too complacent. We’re still in the habit of destroying the environment for our own benefit, and we want to pay for it in a way that leaves us with a little bit of profit. So what should we do? Let’s go back to electric cars.
Perhaps the biggest reason we hesitate to buy an electric car is the financial burden: the price. The immediate money out of our pockets is more important than saving the environment. It’s a short-sighted selfishness that only considers the immediate benefits. However, these problems can be easily solved by broadening our horizons a bit. Why do we think of ourselves as separate from the environment, and why do we forget that we live in a larger framework? Why do we keep forgetting that buying an electric car is actually a way to live a healthier and longer life?
Electric cars should make us reflect on our selfish attitude towards the environment. We need to fully realize that the environment and humans are not separate, but that we live in it. We need to realize that consuming for the environment is not a donation without a return, but an investment in the future. The selfishness of human beings is once again exposed by electric vehicles, and we hope that we can thoroughly reflect on our selfishness and love for the environment.
