Nickel, Hybrid Batteries, Canada, Environmental Disaster?
Created September 16, 2007, at 10:27 am by AirplanePilot
Hello,
In other forums, I have seen hybrid haters bring up stories about how a Nickel mine/processeing facility has severely damaged an area of Canada, and of course, all this stuff about oil being burned from Nickel being transported all over from mines and processing facilities to areas of where NiMH batteries are produced...are these things true?
Or is this just another made-up thing for the hybrid-haters to love and argue over...
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4 years ago
That particular story is a fabricated story. It works as follows:
1) Many decades ago the Nickel Mining Operation at Sudbury, Canada was run without any environmental concerns, resulting in a big mess. (The nickel was mined mostly for stainless steel.)
2) Canada and the Mining Industry finally got smarter and started to clean up the mess.
3) Someone with an anti-hybrid (and more specifically, an anti-Prius) focus decided to connect the following dots: a) Prius uses Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries and b) Here are some ancient photos of an ugly nickel mine. So the story published was:
4) Hybrids are destroying the environment.
It seems to have been a rather successful lie.
2 years ago
Ok this comment is extremely late but seeing as i just stumbled on to it thought i add a statement.
Their is a lot info showing that even if in that one area their are not problems in the mining over all the mining and refining process of NiMH is very environmentally damaging and their was even a study done that shows over a cars life time hummers are better for the environment than a Prius ( http://reason.org/news/show/122517.html )
every hybrid driver who denies these statements is in denial that their holy hybrid is that bad for the environment and besides hybrids were never anything more than a way to produce cars that still required gas we need to get hydrogen fuel cells or fully electric if we actually want to stop harming the environment while we drive
2 years ago
specifically, an anti-Prius) focus decided to connect the following dots: a) Prius uses Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries and b) Here are some ancient photos of an ugly nickel mine. So the story published was:
4) Hybrids are destroying the environment.
46 weeks ago
What I've heard and researched is that it's not the piling on of dirty mines, etc. it's the simple manufacturing costs to the environment. It takes energy to mine the minerals, energy to ship the minerals, energy to process the minerals, more energy to ship the processed minerals to the manufacturing site, more energy to manufacture, even more energy to ship to the assembly plant, and finally the assembled vehicle needs to be shipped to it's final destination. Now for the real butt kicker, what's the payback? The average hybrid costs $10K more than a standard vehicle. If you trade in every 3 years, driving an average of 12K per year, and the hybrid got 40mpg and your old average was 30mpg, you'd save $1200. So if you want to pat yourself on the back that you've somehow saved the planet, buy a hybrid. The only way it even begins to help the environment is if you sit in traffic a lot, every day, you'd perhaps help city pollution by some degree. But do not average that against the manufacturing cost to the environment as you'll lose every time. Like most politically motivated ideas or ideals, they have to exist in a vacuum. When we finally embrace a hydrogen society, then, and only then, will we begin to move in the right direction. For now, if you wish to save the environment, buy a used car and stop feeding our throw away society.
40 weeks ago
My view on Hybrid vehicle technology is eerily similar to yours... it's weird. I'm currently in the process of writing a research paper about flex-fuel, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen, etc. The funny thing is, before even reading your comment, in my paper I created the same scenario you did: hybrids cost 10K more on average, 40mpg hybrid vs 30 mpg conventional, drive it for 200,000 miles at $4/gallon, save $6667 on gas, but you waste 5K on a new battery in the process. Meanwhile, hybrids do little for the environment except ease the pollution in cities. They use energy and oil out the -- to dig up the earth an make a battery, but it's not worth the fuel savings. Sadly, hydrogen might not ever work either. If you want a really good picture as to why not there's a series of videos on YouTube from a NASA guy. Search "Myths and Realities about Hybrid Fuels." It's all pretty interesting. Best thing to do for the time being is to get an efficient or used car and drive it into the ground. Even all-electric or plug-in hybrids aren't ideal because our electricity suppliers burn coal... unless we someday build millions of windmills and install solar panels everywhere, I don't think even electricity will be a sustainable option.
12 weeks ago
I agree that all the transportation of products and raw materials is the way our environment is being polluted. However, I wonder if traditional gas cars are not being produced in the same way, with parts being shipped and assembled in different parts of the world. If they are then a hybrid's dust to dust cost may be not much more than standard gas cars.
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