Hi Jane,
Robert's point was about the resources taken to manufacture a new car,
hybrid or whatever.. all the metal, glass, plastics, chemicals etc,
mining those, energy costs to manufacture them, pollution costs to the
environment and so on, When one discards an old car and goes for a
hybrid, one has to add all the above costs to the benefits of lower
emissions per mile. Its not just C emissions that accompany the
manufacture of a car, there is a bunch of other externalities if one
were to track.
Of course, given the necessity of driving for most (In the US), one
can't run an old car forever, unless one is a mechanic, understanding
and taking care of every strut, wire and screw. Maybe the breakeven in
terms of environmental costs of continuing with the old car vs. a hybrid
may happen in 10 years, I do not know, and its very difficult to put $
costs anyway to damage to habitat done by resource extraction
(mining,drilling etc) and pollution. Thats the emerging field of natural
resource economics ( thats been emerging for at least trhe past 10 years
as i'm aware of)..
cheers
amartya
Jane Shevtsov wrote:
Hi Bob,
Can you please cite some numbers to back up your claim? 30 MPG is pretty
good (although old cars tend to be worse from the point of view of toxic
emissions), but every examination I've seen of the question of whether the
improved efficiency of a hybrid offsets the C emissions due to its
manufacture has concluded that the hybrid is better than keeping the old
car. (I guess that might not be true if you do very little driving.)
Jane
On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 10:08 PM, Robert Fireovid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
McDonough is like the Toyota ads that would seduce me into trading in
my 1994, 30 mpg Prism for a brand new Prius. Considering the
quantities of non-renewable natural resources that are extracted,
transported and transformed into a new car (and the amount of Nature
that is destroyed in its wake), I would have to own the Prius for
over 50 years to "pay back" that resource debt and generate any net
improvement in my environmental footprint.
Young people love (and have taught me the power of) You-Tube. Have
them watch this short spot, "The Story of Stuff," to see what I
mean... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqZMTY4V7Ts
- Bob Fireovid
W. McDonough and M. Braungart's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we
make
things (2002) might be interesting for your summer reading list. They
suggest a proactive approach to environmental issues that is refreshing,
maybe even hopeful.
