A lot of things have been written about how great hybrid cars are. After all, they are substantially more energy efficient. And at the same time, they still retain the reliability and ease of use (as well as the familiar habit of gassing up that we are all used to) that people have come to depend on with the cars that they drive. With these things put together, you would almost think that hybrid cars were the best thing ever, and that they might finally redeem our unceasing thirst for self destructive oil and the deadly fumes that it produces. But then again, they do still use these same fossil fuels, and they do still put out a significant amount of fumes. With this being the case, how do we know that they are going to have any significant positive impact, either on us or on the world that we live in?
Consider the fact that a hybrid car is, on the average, about twice as fuel efficient as a “normal” gasoline powered car. While this is definitely a great start toward cleaning up our planet and not doing the same damage to it all over again, it may not be enough. After all, if we halve the amount of damage that every car in the world does (which is not a likely thing to happen any time soon), but we then double the number of cars which are on the road (just wait until everybody in China and India has one or two of them), all we are doing is clutching the same part of a very slippery slope.
And then again, how much will it really matter if we reduce the carbon footprint of our cars, when they are not even the chief source of carbon dioxide in this world. After all, we burn natural gas for our heating systems. And we release unbelievable amounts of noxious gases when we power up our power plants and our factories, which run 24 hours a day all over the world. So hybrids are a good start, but they aren’t enough.