One of man’s many last ditch efforts to save the earth

Hybrids are fascinating things. They say it’s a car, but I see it as more of a ‘promise’ rather than anything else. A promise of a better tomorrow, a promise that baby squirrels will not be evicted, and a promise that in buying one, you’ll be doing your part in helping to accomplish these things.

But all isn’t well in hybrid land. The big concern over developing such fascinating things is that our world is still slowly dying, and with it its resources of which we use to sustain a happy life on earth. This is all fair and well but for some reason, I can’t help but question the means here. Popular culture will tell you that, yes, the world is dying and we need to do our part. But how much has popular culture ever known about anything anyways?

In the company of a couple of pints, I thought to myself, is the world really on the verge of its own extinction? Status quo dictates that when fossil fuels run out and the climate reaches a point of no return, yes, we’ll all die. But I think I know the world to be a little more resilient than that.

I know that we’ve survived some really bad times and yet come out on top of things as we only seem to know how. Terrorism, world wars, natural disasters, the mullet, we’ve survived it all.

I also know that apart from mankind’s aid, the world is very capable of healing itself better than any man knows how to. Oceans absorb greenhouse gasses faster than you can think, endangered species have an innate ability to reproduce and rebound, and the earth is very capable of creating its own ozone layer if and when it is needed.

And then there’s the Prius. One of man’s many last ditch efforts to save the earth.

Again, hybrids are fascinating things. The very way it functions and its promise is more or less the reason you or your friends might buy one. But I find all this a little deceiving and confusing. First of what they’ll tell you about Hybrid cars is that it runs on an electric motor – which of course is a good thing in these dark times.

“The gas engine on the Toyota Prius does not run at all when you are driving around town. This is what they tell you.”

This is what they tell you. But if you like me aren’t a maniacal motorist, you’d know that “around town” speeds rarely ever exceed 50 Km/h. So what happens after 51 Km/h?

The fact is that, there’s also a regular engine much like the one in a regular car. But why would anyone need two engines? Confused? Better not be, or you might end up with a Prius.

It has a petrol engine and an electronic motor because to drive using the electronic motor, you must first charge the batteries through the running of your regular petrol engine. Only then can you use the electronic motor, which happens to switch back to using its regular petrol engine at speeds higher than 51km/h or so, or when the batteries go flat again.

The highlight of the hybrid car is that it produces no worse than the air over a field of rapidly growing vegetation through its exhaust pipes at the cost of a whole lot less fuel. This I’m afraid, isn’t enough. Mainly because hybrid cars still need fuel to run, fuel that we’re rapidly running out of – another very questionable theory of which should be in discussion in the near future. Anyways…

The mechanics and promise of the Prius is usually the part we get taken away with because it sounds very much like the real deal. But it isn’t. It’s just silicone substitute for the real fix. It is very likely that the next real fix isn’t found in a dealership just yet, but can instead be found in places like your kitchen, a nearby river or lake, in the air we breathe and everywhere in between. This is hydrogen.

Hydrogen fuel cells, the next likely fuel source, isn’t the cheapest thing to mass produce just yet despite its abundance. But it also wasn’t the cheapest thing to send a man to the moon. It wasn’t the cheapest thing to split the atom, and god knows it wasn’t the cheapest or easiest thing to develop the new Ferrari 458 Italia or the new McLaren MP4-12c. It isn’t very likely that the fuel cell is going to be the worst or hardest thing we’ve done so far.

In developing such vehicles and its necessary fuel cells for mass usage, of course we’d also be depleting another of earth’s resources – water. Yes, but this might be a resource we could use a little less of. Here’s Alan Caruba’s explanation of this:

“The most active element of the atmosphere is the 95% of water vapor that forms a protective layer around the Earth.

“The science involved is fairly simple. Clouds have a warming effect because, in order for water vapor to condense back into water droplets, the water molecules must first re-emit the energy they absorbed to become vapor. That latent heat causes the local environment to feel warmer. It is this constant interchange that determines whether wherever you’re at right now is warmer or cooler”

The highlight of the hybrid car is then that it produces the same air over a field of rapidly growing vegetation through its exhausts at the cost of a whole lot less fuel. This I’m afraid, isn’t enough. Mainly because hybrid cars still need fuel to run. Fuel that we’re rapidly running out of – another very questionable theory of which should be in discussion in the near future.

Environment-friendlies will tell you that you should buy a hybrid because you’d be doing baby squirrels a favour in sustaining their habitats while Toyota will tell you to buy a Prius because they know you have money and that you’re gullible.

I’d personally rather stay and environment-acquaintance for the time being.

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