Save the Earth: Drive a Ferrari - How’s this for a convenient truth? Priuses spew out 78 times as much CO2 as Ferraris!

CO2 is NOT a pollutant!

Once again, for all you "global warming" obsessed people, listen carefully:

The greatest threat to biodiversity on Earth is **NOT** our 12,500 year-long 0.43% increase in carbon dioxide. NOT EVEN CLOSE! Rather, the greatest threats to biodiversity on Earth are:

1) Habitat Destruction/Fragmentation
2) Poaching
3) Pollution

Habitat destruction!! Poaching!! Pollution!!

NOT Carbon Dioxide!!!

CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT A POLLUTANT.

CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT A POLLUTANT.

CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT A POLLUTANT.

Animals DIE because of habitat destruction, poaching, and pollution.

NOT CARBON DIOXIDE.

NOT CARBON DIOXIDE.

NOT CARBON DIOXIDE.

— randy33 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 10:23:18 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -7   

@randy33
CO2 certainly IS a polutant when significant enough quantities are involved. For example, most of the carbon dioxide that humans produce is absorbed by the oceans. This is fact. When co2 is absorbed into sea water, it's pH is reduced. If the pH decreases too much, then coral reefs die off. See? Habitat destruction due to excessive amounts of CO2.

CO2 *is* a polutant.

— holmstar (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 8:30:44 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Too much of anything is bad :-P

— Porschinator (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 7:41:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Yes, it's true. Humans only contribute 3% of the CO2 that's put into the air. The rest other 97% comes from THE EARTH itself.

Additionally, it's food for the plants and trees which they use to create oxygen. We wouldn't want to starve them, would we?

Silly to get worked up over a little co2. I'd be much more concerned over other REAL pollutants.

— Auto_expert (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 10:39:07 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

one of the previously unrecognized GREATEST threat of increased co2 and methane production, is indeed "from the earth." namely the vast tracts of frozen tundra in alaska and siberia.

however, it is in the process of being THAWED AND RELEASED to the atmosphere as a result of MAN'S activities which have accelerated global warming.

regardless of whether or not warming is "just" a natural phenomenon, there is NO QUESTION that mankind ia ACCELERATING THE PROCESS by burning fossil fuels.

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 1/4/2009 5:54:53 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Perhaps we should all hold our breath in silence for 2 minutes every New Year to reduce the CO2 on the Earth.

Oh, and let’s keep building more Dry Chemical Fire Extinguishers, since those chemicals are far better for our environment than a CO2 Fire Extinguisher.

This planet has far bigger problems, everything we clean runs off into Lakes and Streams and the Ocean.

How about the Energy that will be burned to rebuild all these cities being destroyed by war. Or the Thousands of Tons of Fuel one transport ship burns moving Army Tanks across the ocean.

And everyone truely believes driving a Prius or a Smart Car will make any kind of a real difference?

Let's turn the TV off already.

— mercuryguy (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 12:17:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 8   

A Prius get it best mileage at under 40mph. Pushed to the limit at 90mph it's worst than a BMW M3

— maikoazu (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 1:54:25 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

The VW turbo diesels are the only vehicles sold in the US that get that kind of mileage.
But just so you know, at 90 MPH a Benz E-Class CDI will use less fuel that an Prius at the same speed (if the Prius can actually hit that speed)
That is far out of the scope of what a Prius is designed for.
Its a good city taxi/Pizza-delivery vehicle.

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 2:31:09 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

The point is that a much bigger Benz uses less fuel than a Prius on the highway.
And Diesel costs less than regular everywhere on the planet except in the US, where the oil companies continue their campaign to suppress sales of diesel vehicles.
In Canada, Shell, Chevron, etc. sell diesel for less than regular, and the taxes are identical ... so none of that gov't subsidy BS from you either!

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 2:24:34 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

BMW 5 series diesel can get 40+ at those speeds.

— pushrodv8 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/4/2009 2:21:54 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

This makes absolutely no sense! Based on the comparison, how much total CO2 does the Maybach brand produce; there sales HAVE pretty much hit the floor and I'm thinking less than Ferrari...no more than Ferrari....waste of computer space. Raw numbers are a joke...lets talk ratios, individual comparisons based on the same exact scenario. Stop coming for Toyota...its not working.

— Mason3Robert (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 1:25:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Most Ferrari owners have a bunch of other cars to drive on daily basis and these machines are unlikely to be econoboxes.

And by the way, an interesting fact:

Source: http://www.spritmonitor.de/de/die_sparsamsten_autos.html

Numbers in brackets are the numbers of drivers who registered and contributed their real life mileage over a period of time. Mileage is in litres per 100 km since this is a German site.

All the cars behind the Prius are tiny econoboxes, not much larger than Smart.


LIST OF MOST EFFICIENT PETROL CARS

Modell (Benzin)l/100km
5,2 Toyota Prius (587)
5,3 Citroen C1 (220)
5,3 Daihatsu Cuore (215)
5,4 Fiat 126 (11)
5,5 Toyota Aygo (294)
5,5 Peugeot 107 (104)
5,7 Honda Civic Hybrid (71)
5,7 Daihatsu Trevis (18)
5,8 Smart Fortwo (1102)
5,9 Smart Roadster (353)
6,1 Suzuki Alto (16)
6,2 Toyota Yaris (234)
6,2 Renault Twingo (388)
6,3 Kia Picanto (111)
6,4 Daihatsu Sirion (90)
6,4 Honda Jazz (121)
6,4 Hyundai Atos (30)
6,4 Fiat 500 (52)
6,4 Fiat Cinquecento (72)
6,5 Kia Pride (11)
6,5 Seat Arosa (86)
6,5 Audi A2 (171)
6,6 Chevrolet Matiz (23)
6,6 Nissan Micra (276)
6,6 Daewoo Matiz (31)
6,6 Citroen AX (66)
6,6 Citroen Saxo (70)
6,6 Opel Agila (44)
6,6 Citroen 2CV (21)
6,6 Peugeot 106 (167)



Now if you correct the fuel economy regarding the different volumetric energy density of diesel and petrol (1,09x less energy in a dm3 of petrol) and place the Prius on the same list of most efficient diesel cars this time, results are as follows:

LIST OF MOST EFFICIENT DIESEL CARS

Modell (Diesel)l/100km
3,6 Audi A2 3L (38)
3,7 Volkswagen Lupo 3L (76)
4,2 Smart Fortwo (916)
4,3 Citroen C1 (29)
4,6 Citroen AX (20)
4,76 Toyota Prius (587) (diesel-energy-density equivalent)
4,8 Seat Arosa (32)
4,8 Peugeot 106 (19)
4,9 Audi A2 (175)
4,9 Citroen Saxo (17)
4,9 Citroen C2 (76)
5,0 Nissan Micra (11)
5,0 Toyota Yaris (78)
5,0 Fiat Panda (12)
5,0 Kia Picanto (12)
5,0 Dacia Logan (18)
5,0 Mini Mini Clubman (14)
5,1 Fiat 500 (23)
5,1 Volkswagen Lupo (55)
5,1 Peugeot 205 (27)
5,2 Citroen C3 (72)
5,2 Renault Clio (179)
5,2 Nissan Note (13)
5,2 Skoda Fabia (367)
5,3 Ford Fiesta (187)
5,3 Mazda 2 (21)
5,3 Volkswagen Fox (11)
5,3 Volkswagen Polo (430)
5,4 Smart Forfour (122)
5,4 Opel Corsa (309)
5,4 Renault Modus (31)

Again, only tiniest diesel econoboxes edge out the Prius in terms of fuel consumption.

— downtoearth (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 1:33:49 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Once again an agent copying only part of the article. The very next paragraph talks about how it's a joke. The evenhanded Autospies at it again.

— 800over (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 2:39:09 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 8   

This is a stupid article and argument.

The REAL problem is that the production of a Prius, whose fuel gains come mostly from the use of light-weight (and rare) materials that are extremely toxic to produce, generates more pollution than 10 years of operation.

In reality, a Prius is worse for the environment than a Cadillac Escalade, which is made primarily of iron and steel, which is extremely economical to produce and recycle.

You don't find engineers (who are concerned about the environment ... and most of them are) driving hybrid cars, because they understand the "big picture" of pollution based on "whole product life-cycle".

The people who buy a Prius typically have a BA degree and couldn't pass Grade 11 science is their life depended on it!
I know many of them .. they just don't get it.
(and we'll see how many are on this site by how much I get de-boosted)

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 2:43:33 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

completely pointless article. The Ferrari driver probably ends up driving 15,000 miles anyways, just spread out over several cars.

— chewy (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 7:15:44 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

lol....Prius..how pethetic.

— linequality (View Profile)

Posted on 1/1/2009 9:28:40 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

Dumbest story I've seen yet. Who cares?

— 204E60 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 12:32:57 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Priuses are made to save gas not the planet. Most consumers don't know that what it takes to get a Prius onto the show room floor. It's harmful to the earth in a global scale. How are the batteries made and what are they made from?

So driving a Prius may make you feel better about yourself because most go into the purchase thinking their helping the world but in reality it's just saving your fuel dollars.

Go Google it up. I think Top Gear has mentioned this before in one of their series but I forgot which episode.

— Agent63 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 7:03:49 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

Anyone can make the numbers say whatever they want... For example, I asked everyone around me.. "Did you hear that Obama was caught in a love triangle this week?" None of them said yes... so, therefore, the news would print that "100% of the people had not heard that Obama was caught in a love triangle." Now if we ask 1,000 people our pole question... and adjusting for liers, we would get about 100% that had not heard this. But if we go back a week later and ask the same questions to the same people, you would see a huge increase in "Yes" --- tell a lie often enough and people will accept it.

The global warming hype is crap. Prius is crap.

— cantaffordone (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 12:11:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

Listen anyone can make a gas guzeling car get reasonably good mileage just by their driving habits.Take a Mustang GT. It has a V8 engine that I believe is rated 18 City and 23 MPG Highway.But if you drive like a hypermiler you can get that average mileage up into the high 20's,perhaps even low 30's if you tried hard enough. My point is driving habits affect gas mileage more then anything else.I've seen people drive crazy aggressive in Prius's. Doesn't that negate the point of owning one?

— mini22 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 12:48:51 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Typical Autospies lack of journalistic integrity. Misleading title, printing only part of the article, expecting readers to follow the jump to get the real truth of the story (increases hits, natch).

All to find out that people don't drive their Ferraris very much.

Idiots.

— thetruth01 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 3:54:35 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

If you don't drive an 18wheeler, I bet its cleaner than a Prius.

I can't believe someone tried to pass this article by as intellectual thought. If that's the case, perhaps Ferrari should make their cars affordable so we can all commute in those cars instead, I'm sure the world would be getting cleaner and cleaner.

How about a kick in the teeth? Toyota building a solar powered car for production.
http://www.wheels.ca/reviews/article/492639

The car itself is years off, but its technology has nearly arrived for everyday use. Solar panels on the A-Bat will be followed by solar panels on the Prius.

I bet a Boeing 777 parked in a hanger is cleaner than a Prius. That'll be a $5000 consultation fee please.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/2/2009 6:48:18 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

I'll bet most Prius owners also leave their refrigerator door open to cool their condo!

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 1/3/2009 3:34:03 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

Dieselrules,
Wow, you'd better let Toyota know that the solar panels on their car don't run the AC.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/07/07/toyota-solar.html

Little do you know that a Professor from the University of Waterloo already put solar panels on a Prius to recharge the batteries and got 100+mpg in it.
But hey, what does a professor know compared to a nobody diesel lover.

I suppose your answer will be a V12 diesel.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/3/2009 11:41:17 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

No car is green. If you're that concerned about the cleaness of a car, there always public transportation.

— Htay7500 (View Profile)

Posted on 1/4/2009 12:19:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2