On 1/29/08, frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jan 29, 2008 1:30 PM, P. J. Alling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Those are generalities not facts, based on the rosy predictions of > > "experts" who either don't know better or worse yet don't care. Lets > > actually look at the expected results as predicted, (or more for that > > matter look at the actual results as predicted for actions already taken > > and what actually happened). If you take all inputs into account and > > expected longevity of the vehicle which is more ecological a Hummer h1 > > or a Toyota Prius. Most would say the Prius, it is after all touted as > > being "green", but depending how you do the analysis the reverse can be > > proved. Both analysis are within the bounds of reason. You pick the > > one you like based on your bias. But bias doesn't tell which is right. > > It depends really on what kind of pollution you prefer and how you > > measure energy usage more than anything else. However I'm more > > convinced by the numbers on the side of the H1, yet as a civilian > > vehicle the H1 fails miserably and I certainly wouldn't want to own > > one. Sometimes what you think is helping is hurting more than doing > > nothing at all. > > "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics." > > -Mark Twain > > Now, I'm not saying you're lying (I don't think you have the intent to > deceive), but it does seem a tad counterintuitive that a Hummer could > possibly be more ecological than a Prius. I'm not asking you to > explain how, because I'm certain that whoever has put forth that > little hypothesis has a dirth of numbers and graphs and statistics to > prove him right. > > Still, hard to believe. > > cheers, > frank >
There's two issues with hybrids from an ecological point of view. The first is that batteries other than Lead-Acid are very unfriendly to make, particularly in large quantities. Lots of pollution from the manufacture and disposal of the battery packs. The other problem is that the coal burned to make much of the electricity that powers a plug-in hybrid (As will soon be an option on the Prius) is much worse for the environment than the relatively small emissions of the Hummer's engine. Coal power is an environmental atrocity (Don't stand downwind of a coal plant burning eastern-produced coal with a Geiger counter, the stuff is somewhat radioactive). -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
