[Grovenet] consumerism

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

One of the interesting comments by Ms Leonard in the link Martha provided
was her suggesting that cars like the Prius might actually produce more
environmental damage than driving a Hummer! 

She cited the environmental problems with extracting and refining nickel as
one, if not the, biggest issue, so the environmental issues are pretty well
hidden from the driver who paid extra to be "green" and, perhaps, save money
over time. 

In my limited time today, I haven't found anything definitive to back that
up, but it is true the auto manufacturers who build hybrids are doing two
things today:

1) Encouraging recycling. Toyota offers a $200 bounty for every hybrid
battery returned to it. 

2) Working hard to develop lithium-ion technology. That's a great chemistry
with far more energy per volume than lead-acid or nickel metal hydride, but
keeping that energy under control isn't easy. It was a bad batch of Sony
lithium-ion batteries that caused all those Dell, Sony, and other laptop
computers to go up in flames a few months ago. They can also explode like a
bomb if an internal short occurs. Consider the impact if those little
batteries had been the size used in automobiles.

One comment I ran into yesterday I do agree with completely: In today's
complex world, it's not possible to know how to be 'green'. The best we can
do is guess, but too often the obvious thing is the wrong thing for the
environment. 

Or, as the famous Kermit the frog observed, "It's not easy being green." 

Does anyone else know about the supposed "dead zone" around the Canadian
nickel refinery that Ms Leonard mentioned in the video? 

Ron D'Eau Claire  




-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Martha Khoury
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 3:49 PM
To: 'Forest Grove local interests list'
Subject: [Grovenet] consumerism


Check out

www.storyofstuff.com

Happy holidays, everyone.

--Martha K.


_______________________________________________
GroveNet mailing list
GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet