I drive a 2001 Ford F350. I get dirty looks from Prius drivers every day. Little do they know (and the econ article mentions this) that their little buzzbombs contain 2.2 pounds of neodymium which is both radioactive and massively damages the environment in its production and disposal.
I bought my truck used. I bought it with 150k miles on it and I plan to put on another 400k miles before it goes to the big diesel garage in the sky. These f'ing Prius yuppies buy a car every 2 years thinking that saving a few gallons of gas is going to save the planet. Try saving the environmental cost of producing that horrible pile of radioactive and chemical garbage by buying a 10 year old used car and driving it for the next decade.
The metal harvested for your frame is also harmful to the environment in its manufacture and production.
This ultimately gets back to the allegation that the dust-to-dust cost of a Prius is less eco-friendly than that of a HumVee, which is a meme that was running around few years ago, and which was ultimately debunked based on a number of faulty assumptions, some of which you make in your argument.
- There is no resale market for Prii
- A Prius won't last as long as a more standardly built vehicle
- The Prius uses an extraordinarily large amount of nickel, which is toxic and/or unrecoverable.
As I said, these were ultimately proven false enough that no informed person can seriously believe that a gas guzzling Hummer is better for the environment. I'd wager the same argument holds true for an F150 as well.
As for the presence of radiation in neodymium, you probably have the same amount of radiation in your alternator, only your alternator isn't shielded, as it is in Prius batteries. Pepto Bismol is also radioactive, and has a half-life longer than the age of the universe -- it doesn't necessarily imply that it's unsafe.
Also, please, let's try to keep the drama down, pretty please? There is a great deal of rhetoric and emotion in your post that needn't be there.
I never made any of the allegation's in your bullets. The simple fact is that producing a Prius is bad for the environment and buying a new one every few years is a hell of a lot worse for the environment than buying a 10 year old vehicle and driving it another decade.
That, along with an ignorance for the environmental impact of the materials used in a Prius was my point.
Also, please, let's try to keep the drama down, pretty please? There is a great deal of rhetoric and emotion in your post that needn't be there.
There isn't any malice in my post. But I inferred rhetoric and emotion in yours by the number of expletives / euphemisms. I can't possibly construe your post (or this reply) in any fashion that isn't snarky, at the very least. I urge you to read the guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
You definitely imply (both in your original post, and in this one) that every Prius owner is buying a new Prius every few years. That is a logical fallacy, in a variety of ways -- both that it is fact, and that it is necessarily bad. Even if that is the case, then that means there is bound to be a very good supply of cheap Prius cars available for the secondary market. Hooray.
The true fact of the matter is that producing cars (or trucks) is bad for the environment. A Prius may be bad in different ways than a Ford, but tearing up the Earth to produce an easier means of transport isn't eco-friendly.
You sure beat up that strawman pretty well. Good thing no chemicals are used in making fuel or in the production of your F350. And nobody is driving older Prii, you'll have to tell some of my customers they don't actually exist.
How radioactive is neodymium? It looks like most of its isotopes are stable and the rest have half-lives significantly exceeding the current age of the universe, just like ²³⁸U.
PBS video on rare earth mining in China, specifically mentioning the Prius engine and battery e.g. the battery contains 22 pounds (10 kg's) of lanthanum.
I bought my truck used. I bought it with 150k miles on it and I plan to put on another 400k miles before it goes to the big diesel garage in the sky. These f'ing Prius yuppies buy a car every 2 years thinking that saving a few gallons of gas is going to save the planet. Try saving the environmental cost of producing that horrible pile of radioactive and chemical garbage by buying a 10 year old used car and driving it for the next decade.
Edit: And buy American darnit!