About 10 years ago my family welcomed a new member: a hybrid Highlander. We were all so excited, we were going green and doing our piece to ensure that the world does not go up in flames so to speak. But now, we’ve learned that a hybrid Highlander is actually worse for the environment than a normal engine Highlander. Studies show that in order to cancel out the carbon output of mining and creating the hybrid battery you would have to drive they hybrid 250,000 miles exclusively in the city, and if you drove on the freeway you would never make up the difference of the carbon output. Ironic right?
This type of scientific “fact” that leads us to believe certain inventions to be better for the environment makes it hard to trust further scientific discovery. I know that sometimes it takes a while for us to test the inventions but even now when the costs of production have been revealed dealers continue to claim Hybrids are better for the earth. We already deal with so many misleading advertising that this type of false advertisement is exploitative.
This also leads to a bigger problem of our “clean cars” actually being worse for the environment. Companies are taking advantage of people who are trying to protect our environment and we should be able to stop this type of false advertisement. Without the proper funding for research into what actually is beneficial for our planet we will keep making the same mistakes.
