Man and the Environment

The relationship between man and the environment is always changing. At times we try to live in harmony with the environment, while at other times we are at odds with nature in the name of progress. New technologies, like hybrid cars, aim at reducing harmful environmental effects but sometimes have a rough start.

The idea behind hybrid and electric cars is to reduce carbon emissions and ultimately eliminate them altogether. On the road then, they produce less emissions then petroleum fueled cars. However, Production of hybrid vehicles has a large negative impact on the environment. Unlike normal cars, hybrids are powered by a battery that contains nickel as well as a traditional engine. The nickel is mined and then smelted at factories. The facilities emit large amounts of sulphur dioxide and cause acid rain. The fumes coming out of the stacks are poisonous and can destroy the landscape around them. One factory in particular at Sudbury in Ontario, Canada has killed so many plants and trees surrounding it that astronauts from Nasa practiced driving moon buggies on it because they considered it to be the closest thing on earth to the rocky lunar landscape.

Nickel mining in itself can have harmful environmental effects. Stripping of hill slopes and erosion are some examples. On one specific occasion, 1 million tons of dumped material from the nickel mines caused a shift of the delta of a lagoon by roughly 300 meters due to sedimentation. Nickel is released into the air during mining and may be released in waste water.

Transportation of the nickel, batteries and other materials for the car and the car itself have their impact on the environment as well. The super tankers that take the materials around the world, for production, manufacturing and delivery, use fuels and release carbon dioxide into the air or water. If the ship were to have an oil spill or leak that would have a significant effect on the sea life nearby.

The production of hybrid cars does so much damage to the environment that by the time you get it on the road you would have to drive it a hundred thousand miles to even out the damage caused in production and start reducing emissions. Not to mention in its life time your vehicle will most likely need to have the battery replaced at least once.

Fortunately, the most damaging batteries, such as the nickel ones, were used in the earlier models and will be replaced with more environmentally friendly ones. Lithium ion batteries are going to be used in the next generation and hyrbrid cars, like most new technologies, will continue to get more and more environmentally friendly.

In conclusion, the early years in production of hybrid cars did so much damage you'd be better off with a gas powered vehicle. As a new technology they are working to make them what they were originally intended to be "environmentally friendly" by finding alternatives to nickel batteries.