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Wasted Green on Going Green Essay

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The amount of energy it takes to produce a car can actually offset the amount of emissions emitted throughout a car's lifetime. When thinking about energy efficiency, the ultimate “green car”, the Prius, is actually one of the sources of the worse pollution in North America! (Demorro). The Toyota Prius, known as the most iconic “green” car, earns itself the most miles per gallon with the efficiency of using two engines, one of them being an electric. Controversially, the electric engine heavily relies on the use of “rare earth elements” which production comes almost exclusively from China. Alongside with China's hazardous mining techniques and careless refining practices, the top two rare earth elements used for hybrids are seen also as …show more content…

Pooling together all of the accumulated energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the head honcho of the green movement, the Hummer H1 takes fifty percent less energy to manufacture and maintain (Demorro). Adding onto the Hummer H1's durability, the added production costs, and maintenance, the Toyota Prius is nonexistent in the green efficiency standards. The fragility of the Toyota Prius, in comparison, reveals that the technology for hybrid cars are still in the infant stages, requiring attention to detail on the “efficient” electric engine. Hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight, offer two engines instead of one, a fuel efficient gas engine and an electric engine that produces no emissions. “Hybrids are the most gasoline efficient of all cars—they typically get 48 to 60 miles per gallon (claimed). Not bad, but only about twenty to thirty-five percent better than a fuel efficient gasoline powered vehicle—like the Honda Civic, for example, that gets 36 miles per gallon” (Dunn). In comparison to regular gasoline fueled vehicles, hybrid cars only boast a measly twenty-five percent increase in fuel economy with the standard Honda Civics cutting the closest with an average thirty-six miles per gallon. Although manufacture's miles per gallon boasts great numbers, the actual claimed mileage by drivers is reduced roughly ten

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