Sure, but McDonough has always argued that the costs of disposal be a factor in
any life cycle analysis. Indeed that's the basis for his cradle-to-cradle
approach. The only evidence I can find on his own position regarding hybrid
technology in automobiles is an attribution from 2005 in support of plug-in
hybrid vehicles (which are substantially different from the Prius, IMO). See:
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/148.html
Cheers,
-
Ashwani
Vasishth [EMAIL PROTECTED] (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
At 10:27 AM -0500 2/28/08, Amartya Saha wrote:
>Hi Jane,
>Robert's point was about the resources taken to manufacture a new car, hybrid
>or whatever.. all the metal, glass, plastics, chemicals etc, mining those,
>energy costs to manufacture them, pollution costs to the environment and so
>on, When one discards an old car and goes for a hybrid, one has to add all the
>above costs to the benefits of lower emissions per mile. Its not just C
>emissions that accompany the manufacture of a car, there is a bunch of other
>externalities if one were to track.
>Of course, given the necessity of driving for most (In the US), one can't run
>an old car forever, unless one is a mechanic, understanding and taking care of
>every strut, wire and screw. Maybe the breakeven in terms of environmental
>costs of continuing with the old car vs. a hybrid may happen in 10 years, I do
>not know, and its very difficult to put $ costs anyway to damage to habitat
>done by resource extraction (mining,drilling etc) and pollution. Thats the
>emerging field of natural resource economics ( thats been emerging for at
>least trhe past 10 years as i'm aware of)..
>cheers
>amartya
>
>
>
>Jane Shevtsov wrote:
>>Hi Bob,
>>
>>Can you please cite some numbers to back up your claim? 30 MPG is pretty
>>good (although old cars tend to be worse from the point of view of toxic
>>emissions), but every examination I've seen of the question of whether the
>>improved efficiency of a hybrid offsets the C emissions due to its
>>manufacture has concluded that the hybrid is better than keeping the old
>>car. (I guess that might not be true if you do very little driving.)
>>
>>Jane
>>
>>On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 10:08 PM, Robert Fireovid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>wrote:
>>
>>
>>>McDonough is like the Toyota ads that would seduce me into trading in
>>>my 1994, 30 mpg Prism for a brand new Prius. Considering the
>>>quantities of non-renewable natural resources that are extracted,
>>>transported and transformed into a new car (and the amount of Nature
>>>that is destroyed in its wake), I would have to own the Prius for
>>>over 50 years to "pay back" that resource debt and generate any net
>>>improvement in my environmental footprint.
>>>
>>>Young people love (and have taught me the power of) You-Tube. Have
>>>them watch this short spot, "The Story of Stuff," to see what I
>>>mean... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqZMTY4V7Ts
>>>
>>>- Bob Fireovid
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>W. McDonough and M. Braungart's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we
>>>>
>>>make
>>>
>>>>things (2002) might be interesting for your summer reading list. They
>>>>suggest a proactive approach to environmental issues that is refreshing,
>>>>maybe even hopeful.
>>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
