Two Things About "Zero Emissions" Vehicles

Thing One: There's mostly no such thing. If you drive an electric car or an electric bicycle, the electricity came from somewhere. If it came from e.g. a coal-fired power plant, or from wind- or solar-powered plants built with a bunch of materials that used fossil-fuel inputs, the CO2, etc. emissions just happened somewhere else, that's all. And if you decide to walk, do you think there weren't any emissions associated with the production of the food that gave you the energy to do that? Or, for that matter, from your own, um, tailpipe? Which is not to say that this or that power source might not entail more or fewer emissions.

Thing Two: It does not follow from the above that all emissions are equally bad in all respects. Vis a vis overall climate effects, maybe. But if you live in a big city, wouldn't you rather the smog was coming out of a smokestack out in the wilderness than from a million car exhausts at street level on your block?