So everyone wants us to cut back on gas and start to use hybrids?

Question

So when I turn on the T.V. they tell me to stop using so much power. But if everybody plugged in hybrids we would be using gas & an extra abundance of energy. If we go back to the horse and carraige its animal cruelty. I really wish people would make up their minds. Sometimes I just say to myself damnit just let me be, the only way solve the problem would be to ride a bike. I just want to hear what the people think we should do?

Answer 1

Who is everyone?

Many proposed solutions to energy or environmental crisis are not solutions at all. In some cases, particularly with respect to the environment, the "solution" is worse. For others it is far too cost prohibitive to implement. Then add in government subsidies and investor influence and the matter can become a boondoggle. Plus in most cases there is no actual crisis and the hysteria is unwarranted.

Hybrids are charged by a gasoline engine and in some through breaking. A small engine and electric motor work together. They offer a slight advantage in fuel economy because the weight of the electric motor is less than a larger gasoline engine would be. However gasoline powered vehicles can be almost as fuel efficient.

It takes X energy to move Y weight at Z rate. There is no way around that. Modern electric cars, thanks to today's battery technology, are promising. They weigh less, so it takes less energy to move them. The physics still apply, the lower weight saves energy, regardless of source. They're not popular yet, but it's on the way.

It will come down to technology that functions affordably for the consumer.

Answer 2

The main thing everyone needs to consider and focus on is our individual impact. Everything we do has an impact on our surroundings and world, to what degree that impact is, is up to us. We need to start to consider our individual impact and try to minimize them, by simply being conscious of what we do, we can make a huge collective difference.

Be lest wasteful !

think a little more conservatively !

Are you part of the problem or part of the solution ?

Is your lifestyle having a great negative impact on the world around you or are you trying to minimse that ?

Answer 3

For starters, hybrids currently do not connect to the power grid.  They recharge the batteries while driving by various methods, such as a regenerative braking system.

Plug-in hybrids are currently in development.  Studies have shown that plug-in hybrids and electric cars produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than gas cars and regular hybrids.

http://www.pluginamerica.com/images/Emis...

There's certainly nothing wrong with riding a bike if you've got that option.  Another good option is to use public transportation, or to get an electric scooter.

Answer 4

To comment on what Eric said. "It takes X energy to move Y weight at Z rate."  That may be true but what he's failing to realize is that the source of the energy matters and how that energy is used.  Internal combustion engines waste about 35% of the energy in the gasoline that gets dissipated by the cooling system, and another 35% is wasted as heat out the exhaust and then another 5% or more lost as friction .  And that's at best.  So internal combustion engines are wasting more than 75% of the gasoline put into them.

Modern electric motors can be as much as 95% efficent, so only 5% of the energy put into the motor is wasted. So, based on that alone if you put in one unit of energy into a gasoline engine and one unit of energy into an electric motor you'll find that the electric motor will go a lot further.

Yes, plugin hybrids may put more stress on the electric grid however even if the power for your plugin hybrid is generated by oil power generation at the power plant that electricity generated by the plant is considerably more efficent than the energy generated by a gasoline engine that is used to directly move the vehicle.  That is because the power plant doesn't use a combustion process to create intertia to generate power, the power plants use the gas and oil to generate steam which means much less energy is lost due to heat and waste.  And there are alternatives to oil generated power, namely solar, wind and nuclear.

Answer 5

Current hybrids are not plugged in, so they don't use electricity.  They generate their own electricity by using the energy typically wasted during breaking.  And they typically move a car farther on a gallon of gas than a similar non-hybrid car.

Answer 6

Nah...it's the extremists who want you to stop driving, to stop eating meat, to stop using plastic, etc...

All I'd say is follow "common sense"...  

If possible, change your light bulbs to the compact fluorescent bulbs.  They use about 1/4 the electricity of a standard light bulb.  Turn off lights when you leave a room, etc.  Plan your driving - combine trips, and plan your route to minimize backtracking so you don't drive extra miles.  IF economically feasible for you, buy something that gets better gas mileage.  Use public transportation if feasible (for me it isn't due to a combination of strange work schedule & rural area making public transportation unavailable for me).  Install low-flow shower heads in your bathrooms, and if possible, a lower flow toilet.  Shut off the water while you're brushing your teeth...  Recycle if possible, reuse if you can, and reduce your consumption...  Do we really need so much "stuff"?  Most likely not...

A common sense approach would have everyone doing what they reasonably can to minimize their consumption of natural resources - and in the process, the cumulative savings would be huge.

Answer 7

We may as well use the oil up, and then use something else.  Why stop using it when there is still a lot of it?

Answer 8

What we should do is not focus on any specific technology, but on our attitudes and culture.

there is no technical fix that can make current patterns of  overconsumption and aspiration sustainable on a finite planet with 6-9bn humans. We need to focus on what really makes us happier and healthier, not what the industrial growth culture tells us we want.

http://www.greatturningtimes.org

Answer 9

Editorial & Commentary

  

March 7, 2007  

  

Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage

By Chris Demorro

Staff Writer

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.

The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

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.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

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. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.

One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.



Please pass this on to all the "global warming" freaks. We are not causing Earth's climate to change.

Answer 10

And you know, maybe we would buy priuses if they werent so dang ugly! I mean im all for slowing global warming but if they want us to use less gas then meybe they shoud make a car that looks better. (Or maybe priuses r like that beacause they need a bigger back to accomodate a diffrent engine)