Again, I'm not for *any* legislation in that sense.  Also, it may be true that such small, minute changes will have only a small ripple in an ocean effect, yet does that mean taking personal steps to aid the environment is then useless?  A pessemist would say so.  I'm not saying everyone should help the environment, I mean, they should, but I am not one to judge someone on whether or not they have a recycling bin on fridays at the end of their driveway, but to say since such small changes will only help a perecentage of a small percentage so it must be useless, well that's completely illogical.

That's like saying 'oh painting my house can't be done in a day, so why bother at all?'  I agree the impact of us 'small potatoes' will be minute at best, at least when I go to bed at night, regardless of any climate outcome, I know I did the best I could without drastically changing my life.

And let me reiterate, I am NOT for making, legislating, guilt tripping, or even forcefully asking people to change their ways.  Its America, you are free to live as you please here, I love that, and no amount of heat or crazy liberals will *ever* make me give that up.

My point was really just that to call Shep a 'crazy GW alarmist' or 'a liberal' because of his view that too many people shrug off our impact on the planet is foolish.  I think people shrug off America's obesity problem far too easily, but that doesn't mean I want to legislate what you can or can't eat.

Sorry about that, I'm just used to hearing doubters (on both sides) ask for 'proof' in that sort of way and I guess to me it came off a bit like 'well what the hell do you know?'  Forgive me. 

As for the original article, I'm not some person who could care less about the environment, yet I am *very* aware that people like Al Gore and his collective of hollywood blowhards are sounding off about it in a dramatic way in hopes to raise awareness.  The sad thing is, all those who are affected by dramatics are the ones already on board, all the drama and embellishing of figures and baseless claims of doomsday proportions do is further alienate the people who could care less, simply because they *know* they are being lied to (in a way.)  We humans do have an effect, but if you want to raise awareness, use REAL facts.  Don't add an extra zero to 'catch our attention'  those not paying attention to the REAL figures still wont care if you fudge them to provide a sense of urgency as those people sadly will never care.  However, those who do, are getting annoyed by these inflated 'facts' and talks of the world cooking itself dead within our children's or grandchildren's lifespan is both ludicrous and the people know it.

The original article did provide a strong case, but as usual, lacked cited facts.  I could say the same (to a lesser degree admittedly) to the second article.  I know many here are assumed to be lock stock conservatives who reject any liberally adopted position outright, but I'm as close to a centralist as you're going to find on the blogosphere.  That said, I still think the article's original point still resounds.  Sure, the hummer is worse than a Prius, no freaking duh.  However, the point many here take from this is that all that liberal smugness I've encountered by those driving hybrids and thinking they are somehow more classy or concerned than others is not only annoying, but now, has less (if any) of a leg to stand on.

The chevy Aveo *does* get close to what a prius does, the second article talks about switching what the study is and only focusing on what gets their point across and what they DONT mention is that most of the 'combined hwy and city' mileage results were skewed themselves.  The Aveo results were mostly city, which as we know eats more gas per mile, whil the majority of the mileage focused on for the prius, in the SAME comparative study (which makes it NOT a fair comparison) were highway miles.  Well DUH!  If I took 78% of my hummer mileage research from highway and compared it to a prius that was 85% focused on its city mileage, then I could say a hummer gets more mileage than a prius!

Those semantics aside, I could care less which is more or less fuel efficient, its obvious that the hybrid (the idea of one at least) is more environmentally sound to a small degree, than our current automobiles.  That said however, as the saying goes, each action causes and opposing reaction.  We know what the reaction is to us driving cars, CO2 emissions and we know that adversely effects our environment (although to a MUCH less degree than we're led to believe.)  However, we're now finding out just how much the  materials used for hybrids is causing adverse effects to the environment.  Also, to claim that 'they only use 1% of the mining output' sorry, but thats an AWFUL large number for ONE car model.  If they said all hybrids currently on the market only cause 1% of the nickel-caused catastrophe, then I'd understand, but no, they are talking about a *single car.*

In closing as well, we need to be mindful, that much like the TV media and news outlets, the blogosphere is more and more plagued by people with personal bias and an agenda to put to the forefront their own personal beliefs rather than report the facts.  And again, let me reiterate, *BOTH* sides of politics are guilty of this, even myself in the past.  I think the second article has its good points, basically saying that overall the hummer is still worse environmentally (duh) but becomes preachy at the end and from the tone of it, this person obviously has a bad view of conservatives as the word 'conservative' does not mean 'right wing'  just how 'liberal' does not exactly mean 'left-wing.'  Obviously the author of the second article has some distorted views of the right, leading me to believe he has hung out with people on the left so long that anyone NOT in line with their thoughts MUST be 'right wing.'

Also interesting sidenote, apparently the original author's stance WAS from the left, he was claiming the Prius isn't eco-friendly *enough.* (which is probably true considering the claims it makes and the overall smugness of most of their drivers.)