Why are hyrbid cars good for our earth and enviorment?!?!?!?

Question

Im a fifth grader so please answer thius question for my homework!

Answer 1

They sound good because they are suppose to use less fuel.  The over all picture is that it will cost more to the environment to build one of these than a regular car.  The batteries contain a potential for a major toxic mess when they get old and need replacing.  The zinc metal and other pollutants offer us no help in cleaning up our environment.

Answer 2

Ok. Hybrid cars are kinda good for the environment.

How they are manufactured is by mostly Japanese and one US company. (Toyota, Honda and Ford), the concern primarily is in the use of materials like batteries (Hybrids have very large batteries inside them), which use metals which are not mined in a very efficient way. So in that regard, hybrids may have a bit of a problem which the various producers should look to clean up, but otherwise, the overall materials production problem is something that the producers have always tried to consider and correct.

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

This battery issue is a concern and production problem for hybrids but is certainly not uncommon at all, a Hummer for instance and most other larger SUV type vehicles use almost 2 to 3 times the materials used to produce an economy car or a hybrid, and each raw material has it's own similar issues.

Personally speaking I am going to make sure that when I turn in my Prius for another Prius or if something better comes along, (Prius mark 2 or a US car that gets 60+MPG), I'll make sure my batteries are recycled and or disposed of properly.

However, it's really after you purchase your car where hybrids shine. They have historically speaking, been built with slightly higher engineering standards than most cars, so this means potentially less time at the shop for repairs, this means less cost for you and less for the repair shop.

Gasoline and oil is what it's about, there is a website produced by the US government which shows the history of the price of gas, and for the long term , when you can rule out price-increases like from (hurricanes like Katrina or Rita), or terrorism (like 9/11 or 7/7, Bali bombings or even wars Iraq/Kuwaiti/US for example).

The price of gas has increased every year since 1992 and is now approaching or at 3 dollars per gallon, this increase is not due to any bad hurricanes or particularly bad news from Iraq (is there any other kind), but because we are using alot of the stuff worldwide.  

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/m...

The price of gas being so high means more people will start buying hybrids and buying less SUV's and stuff. This will help the environment and is what's called market demand.

Also, hybrids pollute ALOT less after they are in the hands of consumers. I have a Prius and bought it for practical reasons, since I drive alot, but that it also has the lowest emissions of CO2 and other contributors to global warming is great for me and the environment.

The idea is that with less CO2 in the atmosphere, the earth will not warm up as much as it otherwise would. This is the goal, but there is a VERY important reasons why hybrids are good for the environment, the less oil America uses and imports, the less likely we are to HAVE to go to war.

For example,trees are renewable, we chop trees down, use it to make wood for a house or a fire, paper and pencils and then use the seeds to plant more trees. Over time and with proper management, we have a renewable resource.

Scientists believe we have discovered about 1/2 of all the oil there is to discover on the planet, But since we are using so much of the stuff, we will eventually get to a point where oil is VERY expensive and just too hard to find but the Earth will never run out of oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

What hybrids help do is lengthen the time we have to find some other fuels, they also start people thinking about what THEY can do to help the country move away from oil eventually we will find other sources of energy, (probably hydrogen from the ocean and fusion reactors in our large cities).

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print...

Eventually we won't use alot of oil because we don't NEED to use alot of oil, which help us avoid wars because of scarcity of the stuff. Hybrids have started us on the way to citizens taking responsibility for their environment and that is almost as powerful.

It would be nice to say that the reason is mostly sentimental that it's so that your grandchildrens' grandchildren still can go to the beach and climb mountains with snow on them and go to see glaciers in Alaska.

Answer 3

Who said they were ?? The batteries are loaded with toxic chemicals, they need gasoline to charge them and they are not used at highway speeds. You tell me.

Answer 4

hybrid cars are good for the environment because they go farther on a single gallon of gas which means less fuel to go the same distance which means less carbon dioxide produced which means fewer global warming emissions