Mass Marketed Environmentalism

In our fast food society, the public's quest for easily-consumable, superfically-tasty tidbits isn't limited to burritos and hamburgers. Everyone seems infected. It only depends on what your desires are. In fact, those who would only rarely be caught at a fast food joint are sometimes the first to gobble up the empty substance and false advertising of what I call convenience environmentalism.

The truth, like good food, does not come unless you are willing to prepare and understand the process. How many of today's environmentalists have actually studied the subject? How many try to understand the complexity of the environment and more importantly the effects of man's economy on it. Very few.

Case in point, the mad rush for Hybrid Cars. Many economists have been questioning the value of these cars but finally a bonafide "lefty" has dared to speak the irrefutable illogic of these cars. Jamie Lincoln Kitman's article succinctly debunks the value of these environmental placebos.

Isn't it obvious that a gasoline powered car will get less miles per gallon when it has to haul around a couple of hundred pounds of extra equipment, not to mention all the energy that is lost manufacturing the "hybrid" part of the car? So shouldn't someone have asked the obvious question of where the break even part happens? How much creeping traffic do you have to be in to make it work? and most importantly, are there any alternatives that are cheaper and more effective?

It's easy to do the math. The "hybrid" part of the car adds roughly $6,000 to the sticker price (we're not even including the incentives that automobile manufacturers receive nor the added maintenance cost). Assuming a bad scenario of $4/gal, 20% fuel savings (a real stretch) and a base mpg of 30 (remember we're comparing similar style cars, more on this later). Guess what. It will take 270,000 miles before your hybrid car pays off. At 12K a year, that's 22.5 years. That is, it would never cover the energy required to "create" it.

The general public, especially the self-proclaimed activists, and, therefore, politicians don't really understand that fuel consumption is only a small part of the total equation. The energy that goes into a car includes all of the energy that goes into making it. That includes the people who drive to work to make that car. Your hybrid makes no sense if while you're saving energy, you're paying someone else to waste it.

Now let's talk about an ugly fact. For the most part, hybrid cars consume more fuel than comparable pure gasoline or diesel cars. They are really only worth it for those who spend a lot of time, and I mean a LOT of time, in stop and go traffic. Once you get on the highway, you're actually wasting fuel. The better alternative to buying a roller skate with a hybrid engine is to buy a more efficient, straight gasoline roller skate. Or to car pool. Or live closer to work. Or become concerned enough about the problem to demand real answers. Don't just consume what the mass market environmentalists want you to consume.

Or just buy the damned roller skate with the lawn-mower engine and don't worry that you'll have the same car as the single mom-waitress where you sometimes slum it. That's what this drive to hybrids is about. Elitism parading as concern for the environment.