OH THE IRONY! Prius battery pollution

[mustang84isu]

Can it get any more hilarious and ironic than this?

 

Toyota factory turns landscape to arid wilderness

 

 

The 'green-living' Toyota Prius has become the ultimate statement for those seeking to stress their commitment to the environment.

 

However, the environment-saving credentials of the cars are seriously undermined by the disclosure that one of the car's essential components is produced at a factory that has created devastation likened to the arid environment of the moon.

 

So many plants and trees around the factory at Sudbury in Ontario, Canada, have died that astronauts from Nasa practised driving moon buggies on the outskirts of the city because it was considered the closest thing on earth to the rocky lunar landscape.

The car giant buys about 1,000 tons a year from the plant, which is owned by Inco, one of the world's largest nickel-mining companies.

 

Fumes emerging from the factory are so poisonous that they have destroyed vegetation in the surrounding countryside, turning the once-beautiful landscape into the bare, rocky terrain astronauts might expect to find in outer space.

 

Although efforts have been made in recent years to reduce emissions from the plant's 1,250ft chimney - dubbed the Superstack - campaigners say the factory is still respon-sible for some of the worst pollution in North America.

 

David Martin, energy co-ordinator of Greenpeace Canada, said: "The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside.

 

"The solution they came up with was the Superstack. The idea was to dilute the pollution, but all it did was spread the fallout right across northern Ontario. Things improved in the Nineties but the plant is still responsible for large-scale emissions of sulphur dioxide.

 

"Sudbury remains a major environmental and health problem. The environmental cost of producing that car battery is pretty high."

Toyota's response?

"I cannot confirm the source of the nickel used in the Prius battery. It is true there is a slight increase in the energy required to produce the materials for the car."

 

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/a...in_page_id=1770

 

MOVING FORWARD, EH?

[OAC_Sparky]

Can it get any more hilarious and ironic than this?

I'm sure the Greenie Hollywood crowd cares about Sudbury.

[Keyser Soze]

Two important points:

 

1) Toyota does not own this factory. If it is not operating within Canadian law it needs to be shut down and the OWNERS of the plant must make restitution. If it is not in violation, change the laws or shut up.

 

2) The Prius uses only a small fraction of the nickel mined in the world each year. 1,000 tons? Nothing. 70% of all nickel mined is used for the production of stainless steel. Know where the most SS is used in North America? In equipment used for the production of food and pharmaceuticals as well as catering and food preparation equipment. Don't forget all the nickel used in electronic devices.

 

If Toyota completely stoppped making hybrids tomorrow it would have ZERO imact on this situation. Must have been another slow news day.

[IMBoring25]

You're right. Toyota's impact at this plant is overblown.

 

But nickel isn't the nasty part of battery manufacture and disposal.

[ebritt]

I'm sure the Greenie Hollywood crowd cares about Sudbury.

As long as they cant see it from their back porch it's ok with them.

 

It's like I have said before, Hybrids are just another fad to make hippies and liberal dufuses feel good about themselves.

 

Hydrogen fuel cells are the way to go.

[DCK]

Remember that anything Toyota = Fantastic and anything America = Evil. That is how it will be for a while IMO, sad but true. Toyota could start a baby seal killing factory and still be praised by Peta and environmentalist. While GM and Ford could open up the owrlds cleanest factories (which I think GM has) and the only thing the media will say is about damn time..............and then talk about how GM and Ford cause global warming. I hope I am not sounding like a whiny baby, I probably am, but enough is enough. This let's hate america fad going through this country is pretty sad. Look at college campuses, kids who lack any potential to think for them selves are swept up in the liberal America is evil campaign.

 

 

America future looks pretty bleak with all the self hate fad this country has gotten into.

[JETSOLVER]

Once again, the environmentalist(as a title, not as a mission statement) cry sheds credibility in the interest of winding up the Sunday reader. There is a very old name for that...

 

At some point there will be real intelligent response to these issues, as they are serious and pressing, but by then I'll be dead. Sorry kids.

 

And even Sudbury doesn't care much for Sudbury anymore...its not Toyota's mess...

[retro-man]

Two important points:

 

1) Toyota does not own this factory. If it is not operating within Canadian law it needs to be shut down and the OWNERS of the plant must make restitution. If it is not in violation, change the laws or shut up.

 

2) The Prius uses only a small fraction of the nickel mined in the world each year. 1,000 tons? Nothing. 70% of all nickel mined is used for the production of stainless steel. Know where the most SS is used in North America? In equipment used for the production of food and pharmaceuticals as well as catering and food preparation equipment. Don't forget all the nickel used in electronic devices.

 

If Toyota completely stoppped making hybrids tomorrow it would have ZERO imact on this situation. Must have been another slow news day.

 

Let me add this quote from the article: "Things improved in the Nineties but the plant is still responsible for large-scale emissions of sulphur dioxide."

 

Okay kids, all together now: When did the Prius - that you'd all love to believe is solely responsible for this mess - come out? This does however point to a serious problem - and one that needs to be solved. With everybody carrying around cell phones, MP3s, PDAs, etc. etc., not to mention cars - every one of which packs at least one battery, and all those other household items that use them - not to mention all of the battery-powered crap we're about to buy our kids for Christmas - we need to get dead (pun intended) serious about cleaning up the production, recycling, and disposal of these things. Quick show of hands: How many people just toss the small ones into the garbage? I'm still guilty of doing that - although I have started a recycling box in the garage for my compact fluorescent bulbs. Maybe I could toss the batteries in there too, and take them to the recycling station once a year. If I achieve my dream of making my next car (6 years from now) an e-Box, with a solar array on my garage roof, storing and selling power back into the grid, I'll want the storage medium to be clean. Any scenario that envisions small-scale, decentralized power generation from non-fossil and non-hydro sources (i.e. wind and solar), is going to have to come to grips with the battery issue. After all, fossil fuel, hydrogen, and water behind dams are storage mediums. The only other one I'm aware of is batteries.

[IMBoring25]

I understand supercapacitors are coming along (Not ready for prime time yet, but coming along). Then there are always gravity storage, flywheels, hydraulic storage, et al...

 

Perhaps a suitably creative application could incorporate all of those concepts into a cohesive unit that would provide more power than they are perceived to alone.

[retro-man]

When I was in grad school, doing a design competition for a new community on a light-rail station near Seattle, a professor and his design team came up with the following: Near the train stop would be a large (10 stories high? I don't remember) steel mast, constructed like a giant leaf spring. The top of the mast would be connected by cables on one side to a generating station some distance away, and on the other side, to a series of gears and shafts powered by the gear in a fitness center. As you pedaled, the cables would pull the mast over like the needle on a giant gas gauge, showing how much power was left on tap. People could see this indicator from almost anywhere in the community, and as they came and went, pitch in to keep their homes powered up, and stay fit at the same time. Interesting notion. Anyway, the only truly clean sources are sporadic, so coming up with benign storage media is a must.

Edited December 11, 2006 by retro-man

[Bluecon]

Quote

"So many plants and trees around the factory at Sudbury in Ontario, Canada, have died that astronauts from Nasa practised driving moon buggies on the outskirts of the city because it was considered the closest thing on earth to the rocky lunar landscape."

 

Practised for the lunar landing in Sudbury. This is true.

When did they land on the Moon? 1968?

 

Typical environmental whacko scare tactic.

Using info from almost 40 years ago.

[Michael Reynolds]

Stupid, STUPID, STUPID Press!!!!

 

Why don't people account for shit they put in print? Why?

 

Greater Sudbury, also known as the Sudbury Basin, is the site of a metorite crater hence the heavy ore deposits in the area. It was not, and I repeat was not, used by NASA as it resembled the surface of the moon. It was used to study rare rock formations formed by said metorite mentioned above.

 

FWIW, Sudbury has had pollution issues well before Toyota started selling the Prius, namely deforestation.

 

Wow I've been waiting to use that forever, about the only thing I found interesting in geology class

Edited December 11, 2006 by Michael Reynolds

[Bluecon]

Stupid, STUPID, STUPID Press!!!!

 

Why don't people account for shit they put in print? Why?

 

Greater Sudbury, also known as the Sudbury Basin, is the site of a metorite crater hence the heavy ore deposits in the area. It was not, and I repeat was not, used by NASA as it resembled the surface of the moon. It was used to study rare rock formations formed by said metorite mentioned above.

 

FWIW, Sudbury has had pollution issues well before Toyota started selling the Prius, namely deforestation.

 

Wow I've been waiting to use that forever, about the only thing I found interesting in geology class

"As well, environmental concerns were raised about the sulfur dioxide emissions from the smelting process, which so damaged the local landscape that NASA astronauts rehearsed their lunar landings in the area"

 

http://sudbury.foundlocally.com/Local/Info...ostWarYears.htm

 

Just another case of environmental whackos misrepresenting the facts.

 

"When restoration efforts began in 1969, germinating seeds died on contact with the contaminated soils, and thousands of tree seedlings planted in the first two years died within a year of planting. Residents decided to try a different approach. They applied lime to the soils to neutralize the acidity and planted grasses and clovers instead of trees. By 1974, a 3-hectare (7.4-acre) patch had a sparse grass cover. Nature took over then, and wildflowers, shrubs, and birches and poplars began to grow.

 

While citizens and students worked to restore the environment, the mining companies worked to reduce pollution and control wastewater quality. In 1972, Inco completed construction of a giant smokestack that reduced sulfur dioxide emissions. Inco completed a sulfur abatement program in 1994 that further reduced emissions to 10 percent, and planted the millionth tree seedling of its own land reclamation program. Falconbridge has planted 600,000 trees on its properties in the Sudbury area since 1955. The company opened a new smelter and acid plant in 1978 that reduced sulfur emissions and renovated the smelter in 1994 to reduce emissions further. Falconbridge recycles nearly half of the water it uses and treats wastewater to control acidity, heavy-metal content, and suspended solids. The treated water flows into a 299-hectare (494-acre) peat bog that over the last 15 years has been rejuvenated from an acidic wasteland to a productive wetland and transformed from a hostile environment into a wildlife sanctuary.

 

To date, more than 3,000 hectares (7,410 acres) of land have been restored and an additional 2 million trees planted through a joint program administered by the Regional Municipality of Sudbury and financed by job creation funding from government and industry. In recognition of it environmental transformation, Sudbury received the United Nations Local Government Honors Award at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro."

http://www.aese.org/spring96/TIME.HTM

[bri719]

yep that article was flawed, but "Toyota demand isn't significant"?

 

au contraire:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005...oyota_saab.html

 

The Panasonic deal ensures that Toyota won't run short of the powerful batteries that power its increasingly popular gas-electric hybrids. Other car manufacturers were already complaining that Toyota and other Japanese companies were locking up crucial hybrid supplies.

[Kotzenjunge]

So because the article takes a few liberties it erases the problem that the article was about in the first place. Oh, wait, sorry, that's me hating America again. I'm always told I hate America when I use my brain.

[Bluecon]

So because the article takes a few liberties it erases the problem that the article was about in the first place. Oh, wait, sorry, that's me hating America again. I'm always told I hate America when I use my brain.

The whole article is based on a lie.

[Keyser Soze]

yep that article was flawed, but "Toyota demand isn't significant"?

 

au contraire:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005...oyota_saab.html

 

The Panasonic deal ensures that Toyota won't run short of the powerful batteries that power its increasingly popular gas-electric hybrids. Other car manufacturers were already complaining that Toyota and other Japanese companies were locking up crucial hybrid supplies.

 

The operative words here are "hybrid supplies." First, nickel is not the only component of these hybrid batteries. Is nickel the limiting component in the production of hybrid batteries? I don't know, do you?

 

More importantly, how much of the annual worldwide production of nickel goes into hybrid batteries? A very small fraction. If 1% of this plants production goes to hybrids and 80% of this 1% goes to Toyota, how big is Toyota's role in the problem? Miniscule. I will guarantee you that Ford uses many times more nickel in the chrome plated front bumpers on F150's alone than Toyota uses in the years production of hybrids.

 

Bottom line, the article is bunk. Hate on Toyota all you want but do it for legitimate reasons.

[Keyser Soze]

So because the article takes a few liberties it erases the problem that the article was about in the first place. Oh, wait, sorry, that's me hating America again. I'm always told I hate America when I use my brain.

 

It doesn't erase the problem, but distracts the reader from the real cause. In other words, if hybrid production ended tomorrow there would be ZERO impact on the problem. The small amount of nickel freed up would quickly be absorbed by the plating, consumer electronics and metal industries.

 

It's like a 5' tall, 300lb man with bad hygiene and no money who thinks he can't get a date because of the stain on his shirt. What would actually have an impact, a job, shower and gym membership or a trip to the dry cleaner?

 

My brain tells me that the only way to solve a problem is to identify the true cause.