Sense

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/the-ultimate-pr.html

"As Matt Power notes in this month's issue of Wired, hybrids get great gas mileage but it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make a Toyota Prius. Because there are about 113,000 BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom. Think of it as a carbon debt -- one you won't pay off until the Prius has turned over 46,000 miles or so.

"There's an easy way to avoid that debt -- buy a used car. The debt has already been paid. But not just any used car will do."

The Prius is a nice car, and it's a fashion statement. I'd say people should stop kidding themselves, but I know they won't. The entire system of modern economics is premised on stupidity. And that is also why global climate change will not be slowed, much less stopped and much, much less reversed.

* * *

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/51/

"Volkswagon took that extra step and made a bobsled with a diesel engine. It is, in fact, actually a car. It seats two (arguably), gets roughly 235 miles per gallon of diesel fuel and is perched at the very cutting edge aerodynamic technology. Of course, this comcept car has been around since 2002, and we're still no where near seeing it on our roads."