Not to be negative, but I’m sick and tired of hearing about the discussion about whether the Prius is more ecologically sound than the Hummer. Search for the right criteria and you’ll find all sorts of fantastic articles and reviews about how great the Prius is, how satisfied the owners are, and how electrically-assisted vehicles save on gas miles and therefore the environment. Search for the right set of criteria and you’ll find all sorts of articles comparing the effects of Prius‘ manufacture on the environment, battery issues, bashing and what seems like a rain of compliments for the opposite—Hummer. All of the arguments for both are based on the domestic (US) market.

Let’s talk about the Prius for a moment. Toyota made claims, based on US measures of fuel efficiency which have recently changed, that the Prius gets upwards of 60 miles per gallon. This in turn saves obviously on petroleum fuel consumption and carbon expulsion into the atmosphere. The downfall of these claims, as presented by the Hummer camp, are that elements required for the production of the Prius battery are mined in Canada—having drastic effects on the immediate environment of the mine(s). These elements are then shipped to China where the batteries are manufactured, using loads of fuel and producing loads of carbon. Then, finished batteries are shipped to Japan where they can be put into the cars and the cars are then shipped to the US market where an eco-conscious individual like you or me can buy them.

It’s thought, by the Hummer camp and other critics, that the amount of carbon or fuel that the Prius claims to save is offset by the amount of shipping the materials require to generate a finished product for the US market. Not to mention the direct environmental effects mineral extraction has.

The Prius camp lays claims on vehicles like the Hummer about their incredible fuel inefficiency however the Hummer is produced (mainly) in the US and does not require the amount of shipping used in the manufacturing process of the Prius. Hummer also offers a considerable amount of “utility” the Prius does not.

The bottom lines are these:
• Prius gets great (not 60 but more like 40 something MPG) gas mileage off the lot and Hummer gets in the teens.
• Hummer has higher utility.
• Hummer requires less shipment.
• The true lifecycle difference, when incorporating all of the stages of manufacture, use and disposal between the two can be viewed as nominal.

Here’s what I buy: Who the hell cares? I mean I care more about the environment and the social aspects of purchasing than most, but these arguments are completely besides the point when I’m considering how to spend my money. The Prius has become the symbol of efficient, alternative vehicular technology—incorporating innovative means of solving a petroleum issue albeit not perfect. The Hummer is arguably the pinnacle symbol of American waste—utilizing an aged and inefficient combustion engine—and incorporating only a minimum of technology that is actually useful to the owner on a day to day basis.

People don’t donate to Cancer or HIV Research because they’ve already found the answer. They support them because there is hope for a cure and the product of their spending on these creates advancements for humanity that get us inches closer to one.

Buying a Hummer is like supporting a dying technology—doesn’t matter whether its lifecycle effects are the same or better today than that of the Prius. Petroleum based vehicular solutions have reached a plateau in how efficient they can be in using petrol as a form of energy to get us around. Even the use of lighter materials are a finite option here. I’m not even going to mention that oil is a finite resource… well… I guess I just did… so you get the picture. The light at the end of the tunnel on petroleum-energy for vehicles (and basically at all) is pretty darn dim. The end of the tunnel is that we don’t have any more gas—and we ruin the environment in the process of supporting its use.

Buying a Prius is like supporting Cancer Research. We all see there is a problem in that cancer exists and we would—at least the majority would—like to see it eradicated or at least controlled and understood. A great number of us also realize that the oil problem is not going away, the carbon problem is not going away, and controlling, understanding and finding a work-around is pertinent to our way of life—if not our survival.

So don’t fall into the trap of these arguments thinking that the petroleum issue in cars is going to be solved just because over the last 10 years a couple magazines started writing about the Green trend. The arguments are usually completely skewed toward the marketing content of either side and it’s up to you to determine which form of technology brings a higher degree of hope for us all in solving the problems we’re trying to overcome. In the case of Prius and Hummer, it comes down to supporting electrically-assisted vehicle technology, or (eventually a fully-electric vehicle like the Tesla) with the potential to use energy from an infinite resource like the sun—or a combustion engine, the technology of which is 100 years old, and the energy source of which is finite and takes several 10s of thousands of years to produce.