system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If an electric car plugs into an outlet that takes its power from coal or gas, isn’t that just trading one pollution for another?
gpt
Yes, but that's not a bad thing.  Even in an old coal-fired plant the conversion is much more efficient than in an automobile engine, all the pollution is in a fixed place where it can be treated, the least efficient plants are closed every year, and eventually it might be replaced by more renewable sources.  All these are better than their gasoline engine alternatives.