Hybrid Cars: What is the net ecological result considering all aspects - lead mining for batteries, acid, etc.

Question

For argument's sake, let's forget the $$$. Suppose I am a green millionaire who wants to save the planet...
Does it make ECOLOGICAL sense to buy a hybrid car?
Please consider this: The mining industry is one of the worst polluters. For the large batteries and the electric motor, a certain amount of "exotic" materials is used like LEAD, COPPER and many others.
It is obvious that a small car causes less pollution than a SUV, but what interests me is if there really is an overall ecological advantage of, i.e. a Honda Civic Hybrid versus the conventional Civic. The fuel savings is not so huge, and it might just be that the pollution cause somewhere else is higher than the CO2 savings where I use the car.
Thank you for your time!

Answer 1

That's a good question, also as well as the lead, theree is nickel, cadmium, zinc and other heavy metals. All of which can be easily leached by water. Hybrid car batteries are an ecological disaster waiting to happen. These metals must be treated with care because of their obvious side effects. Not many people realise that Hybrid car batteries are very dangerous. For instance in a crash where not only can they spill acid\gel of other reagent liquids. Is the average fire department equipped to deal with an event such as this? Would the tow truck driver and the holding yard know how to store a wreak correctly to prevent spillage and exposure to toxic metals? Is ther any legislation in place for the storage\ recovery and disposal of hybrid car batteries?
Also the energy used to produce a hybrid car is far more than what is used to produce the average gas guzzling car. So you are producing more CO2 to produce the hybrid than a normal car. The batteries in a hybrid car will only last a limited time so they will need to be recycled, again taking more energy to recover the toxic elements.
And hybrid car are more expensive to buy in the first place. It don't make good environmental and economical sense to buy a hybrid car. But it makes people feel good, thinking that they are helping reduce harm to the environment, when they're not.

Answer 2

The cars u drive has that old lead and acid and there is no big problem why. Now consider all the cars.