An interesting thought
I’m reading my copy of “Design News” now, and it claims that energy equivalent to 12 quarts (about 23 lbs) of oil is needed to make one quart (about 14 lbs) of steel. About 16 quarts of oil (about 32 lbs) is needed to make a single quart (about 6 lbs) of aluminium. To make a quart (2 lbs) of platics, you need about two quarts of oil in “energy input.
All in all, making a new vehicle requires somewhere around twice that vehicle’s weight in coal or oil. Now consider that in light of a 3000 lb Toyota Prius. Before you save an ounce of carbon dioxide from this vehicle, you need to save literally 6000 lbs of fuel.
Actually, it’s worse, because the energy input is mostly from coal. Make that about 10,000 lbs of fuel, or approximately 1500 gallons of gasoline.
To put it in perspective, the person who trades in a compact car (Civic, Cobalt, Corolla, etc..) for a Prius actually puts more carbon dioxide into the air for the first 150,000 miles, or virtually the entire useful life of the car.
