You can punch the babies, I'm going to punch all of my engineering school professors who drove one in spite of this knowledge.

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How much nickel is in the chrome and steel of a Mustang?

Exactly how "nasty" is mining nickel? Numbers please. Sudbury has cleaned up a lot, and apparently "Due to the high mineral content of its soil, the floor of the Basin is among the best agricultural land in Northern Ontario, with numerous vegetable, berry, and dairy farms located in the Valley".

In your world, how many pounds of nickel is someone allowed to mine in order to put about 20 tons less greenhouse gases in the air over the life of her car?

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What Green Car claims to do lifecycle analysis, I haven't had time to read their cited studies. On a 0-100 scale they rate the Reva G-Wiz electric as a 6, the Citroen C1 1.0i a 29, a bunch of small Euro diesels in the 30s, and the 2008 Prius a 35.

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Yes, energy costs money. But in this instance, that simple fact is completely irrelevant.

You asserted that the Prius is a significantly greener car and puts out less greenhouse gasses than other comparable non-hybrids, and cited the statistic of emissions put out by the owner/operator in the life cycle of the car. I pointed out that in that context, you are correct. But that context is also very limited in scope. If you look beyond the life cycle, and at the overall production cycle, however, the story changes. I illustrated that in my previous comment.

When it comes down to it, no car whatsoever it truly "green". Whether or not the Prius is significantly greener than other cars all comes down to the context that you choose to take into account. The narrower the context you set, the greener the car appears, and vice-versa.

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