A friend of mine came into work the other day, touting an article very similar to this one (the one he had was written by a James Martin for a senior citizens’ publication, but I can’t find a good link to it online; in any case, the content is essentially the same as the one above). The basic conclusion of this article is that the Hummer is more eco-friendly than the Prius (recall, Lisa and I just bought a used Prius).

I won’t go into all the reasons that I think this article is BS, as the main points have been refuted already by a number of others (see, for example, this Wikipedia article, this Better World Club article, and this topic on the Hybrid Cars forum). However, there are a few comments I wanted to add to those already made.

First, the main crux of the argument that the Hummer is more eco-friendly has to do with the mining of nickel that is used in the batteries of a Prius. Much (most? all?) of the nickel Toyota uses comes from a mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada (also, interestingly, the home of Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, or SNO, an underground neutrino detector built in an abandoned mine in Sudbury). The article claims that there is a great deal of pollution associated with that mine and, if you consider that pollution in the production of a Prius, it makes the Hummer look as green as can be. As some of the other links point out, though, the main pollution from Sudbury occured several decades ago, long before Toyota started producing the Prius, and has since been cleaned up to a remarkable degree. Furthermore, Toyota only buys 1% of the nickel mined in Sudbury. To blame the entire pollution produced there on Toyota is like blaming the Iraq war on Hummer because of the oil we need to run them.

Second, I don’t think that the original article considered at all the post-production cost to the environment. Probably, because it is hard to quantify. But, even Bush is starting to admit that global warming is real and human caused. If there is a large-scale effort to try to reverse things, to try to clean up the environment to reverse some of the climate change we’ve caused, shouldn’t those costs be added to the Hummer’s cost of driving? I’m guessing, based on how much more CO2 those spew, it would far outweigh any pollution Toyota is responsible for by purchasing 1% of the nickel produced in a relatively clean mine in Canada.

Finally, in looking for sites discussing the original article, I couldn’t help but note the comments people left on sites hosting it and the bile in their comments. There were comments like “there isn’t anything that makes me happier than seeing a Prius broken down on the side of the road” and other things like that. These people really hate the Prius. And it makes me wonder why. They claim it is because of the in-your-face “environmentalism” the Prius represents. To be honest, Lisa and I bought our Prius for a simple fact: it uses less gas. I drive ~40 miles each way to work and I just wanted something that uses less gas, both for my pocket book (though, to be honest, the extra cost of the Prius means it will be a while before I break even there) and for the environment (why spew as much crap if I don’t have to). But these people seem threatened by the car. I’m guessing it reminds them of how crappy their cars do and how they aren’t willing to do anything to help fix the problem. Just because some of us try to do at least a little bit to make things better for the climate and environment, doesn’t mean these people have to feel so threatened.

But, if you want to talk about an in-your-face vehicle, what is the Hummer? Is there a vehicle that is more in-your-face than that one? Why does anyone but the military need such a beast? Aren’t Hummer drivers showing the rest of us (a) how much money they have to afford such a thing and (b) how little they care about the rest of us, in terms of sharing the road and using resources?