Did you know that Prius does more environmental damage than Hummers?

Question

"Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel 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...

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. 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 to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery."

Inconvenient Truth!

Answer 1

So; what's your point?

Answer 2

Looking at the Google Earth Photos of Sudbury, Ontario I don't know were the others got the opinion that the mine is not equal to any ongoing Super Fund site.  I would not drink water from anywhere within a fifty mile radius of the mine.

Prius are just a flash in the pan of environmental adventures into finding a workable solution to energy independence.  large volume cellulosic ethanol production is a more viable option.

Answer 3

I believe that  we (humans) will be the cause of our own distinction. As we all set around and fight about what is good and bad for mother earth and search for the facts to back it up,one day we will wake up and realize that it's to late. As soon as we find that something we made or are mining has a neg impact on the environment we try to fix it by trying something new or different. The problem with this is that some things we do don't show harm for  years . This problem will never go away and we will slowly kill ourselves off. The end

Answer 4

That is a complete farce. Just another feeble attempt to justify waste.

Answer 5

Yawn

Another old tired totally refuted/fictional story. as withdrawn by the daily mail

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live...

The inconvenient truth is people do not want to take responsibility for their actions and ignore all the evidence to the contrary as soon as someone makes up a tall story that says they can consume and pollute our finite world as much as they like - god is in his heaven & all is well.

how much nickle is in your cutlery draw? we should all use chopsticks

Answer 6

Like any of that matters!

How dare you muck up my feel-good environmental moralising with you're dirty facts!

It's like you're challenging me to actually research & do my own thinking instead of jumping on the bandwagon that will help get me invited to all the cool, hip parties.

Besides, if I start thinking for myself, I might begin to believe I can do other things for myself, which would derail my belief that only by govt intervention can I overcome any of life's obsticals.

You are a bad, bad person!

Answer 7

And after all of these batteries are past their useful life, where do we dispose of them? I think that should raise some environmental concerns too.

Answer 8

Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickel-copper alloys and nickel silver (14%), malleable nickel, nickel clad and Inconel (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons (3%), heat and electric resistance alloys (3%), nickel brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).

That 3% "others" includes Prius batteries.

Answer 9

That story has been thoroughly debunked. The premise that a Hummer will be on the road three times longer than a Prius is laughable. The bit about the nickel plant is about thirty years out of date. The plant has cleaned up the area and recently won an award for its environmental stewardship. About the battery components being shipped "around the world": any car contains components made in various places, big deal.

Answer 10

wow....I never thought of that.

Answer 11

Not to mention if you use a Hummer for what its made for such as hauling stuff through tough terrian.  It becomes pretty fuel efficient ( I know i drive a 4x4 pick up for the same reason to haul stuff over terrian a Prius couldn't make it)

Answer 12

Why do people continue to bring up this lame question?   I've driven through Sudbury a couple times.   It is growing back again some since environmental controlls have been added.  (those pesky environuts getting in the way of an honest business)    The Bahamas was also used by NASA as a training site for astronauts who landed on the moon since they didn't know for sure what it would be like there.   Container ships are the most fuel efficient vehicles in operation today, much better than a prius, or even a hummer!    Do you complain about an apple being shipped from New Zealand just so you can have an apple out of season?   Quit y'er whining.