I’m struggling with this post. I know hybrids aren’t the end-all-be all solution, and I’ll go with you on the ‘more polution in production’ aspect.

However, first, I think we’d all agree that hybrids are better than SUV’s, and your running the risk by denoucning hybrids of turning people back to SUVs, because, ‘hey, if they’re both bad, I might as well drive the Range Rover I wanted anyway’. Not a great idea, I’d think.

Further, for those of us in New York Metro, your stance against cars is great. We really don’t need them. On average, I’ve driven less than once in a two month period for the last two years.

However, while there may be a ‘car culture’, most people can’t work from home, and often don’t live in places with public transportation systems as extensive as ours. We also travel over terrian that isn’t easily suited to walking (to cold, to much rain, etc), and often need to carry more than we can on a bike or in our hands.

Without a major overturn of the current marketplace, back to extensively local economies, it seems more responsible to promote carpooling, hybrids, public transportation whenever available, and simply doing the best you can rather than trying to convince people to give up something that most cannot.

There’s a whole nation of people that think they’re green gods just because they drive hybrids. Nevermind that they’ll roll their shiny new Priuses over to a steakhouse and chow. Want to really take a step in the right direction for the environment? Just go vegan. The University of Chicago released a study recently that literally said that a vegan in a Hummer leaves of less of a carbon footprint than a meat-eater on a bicycle. Food for thought.