The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Link: Toyota factory turns landscape to arid wilderness | the Mail on Sunday.

Regularly, idiot celebs enhance their “Green” credentials by buying the Toyota Prius (although how many actually drive the revolting object is another matter). This, despite the fact that research shows that “dust to dust” (from production to disposal) the energy cost of a Prius comes down to $3.25 per mile. Compare that to $2.70 per mile for, say, a conventional VW Golf or $3.02 per mile for an Aston Martin.

Amusingly, it’s only slightly less expensive in energy costs per mile than my 5.5 litre Mercedes – even though I get about 25mpg vs the Prius’s claimed 55mpg. That’s because the Merc is manufactured conventionally with a tried-and-tested petrol engine. Extra energy is consumed in producing the high-tech “hybrid” Prius and its two engines.

How I smiled therefore, to see the photograph in the linked article.

… 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.

I am sure none of this will have any impact on the “movement.” Greenery is not a rational stance. It is an ersatz religion. I am sure idiots will continue to buy the Prius, despite its relatively adverse impact on the environment, for the same sort of reasons other idiots wear T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of mass murderers – i.e. because it’s stupidly fashionable.