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Sustainability and Thinking Green

Prius is not good for the environment (Discussion)

RLLillis said – Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:10:25 -0000 ( Edit Link )

Okay, I know you THINK a Prius is God’s answer to poluttion and gas shortage, but alas, it may not be all you think it is.

I argue that the prius is bad for the environment. Based on this article. Excerpt below.

“The Prius battery contains nickel that is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the “dead zone” around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China then it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?”

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chermann said – Thu, 15 May 2008 15:19:42 -0000 ( Flag Edit Mark / Unmark Best Link )

A Prius has a much more complicated drivetrain than a regular car. This means it takes a fair bit of energy to make and may not be as durable. It’s also about as big and heavy as a regular sedan. Once again, this means there’s lots of energy and materials going in to each one. Even regular cars take more energy to make than they will burn driving down the road. It also accelerates quickly, which is nice for people who want to feel like they are driving a high-end car, but terrible for efficiency. And the mileage isn’t THAT hot – my little $1300 1996 Toyota Tercel gets 46 mpg. Most Priuses don’t get better than 50. Even without the batteries, I think Priuses and other hybrids (with the exception of the insight, which is actually small and light and gets 70 mpg) are just ways for Americans to keep buying nice things and consuming more than our fair share of energy and resources but with the added benefit of a little undeserved moral superiority.
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JohnPhilipGreen said – Thu, 15 May 2008 15:31:15 -0000 ( Flag Edit Mark / Unmark Best Link )

I recently read a creative view on cars and the environment that suggested the best thing to do was to keep the car you have and to drive it less.

As you suggest, the environment footprint of creating a car is so significant that the incremental yearly improvement of its higher efficiency doesn’t outweigh it until a decade after the cars expected lifetime.
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