‘Hybrid vs. Vegetarian, a study’

Kyle Knuth

There are advantages and disadvantages to owning a Hybrid or being a vegetarian that can affect the environment. Sustainability is a huge deal right now and so all the factors for these issues are very important. “Sustainability means using natural resources in a responsible way that does not upset and ultimately destroy the earth’s delicate ecosystem” (Miller 1). First we will look at the advantage of being vegetarian and the disadvantages and then do the same with the hybrid cars. We will compare and contrast and try to get a little closer to finding which is more sustainable and why.
“A 2006 United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. Eating 1 pound of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV 40 miles” (GoVeg.com). The prominent vegetarian advocacy group Go.Veg made this pretty bold statement basically saying that being vegetarian is more sustainable than driving a Hybrid. But, we need to look at all the factors and see if this is actually true. The University of Chicago also agrees that going vegan is 50% more effective than driving a Hybrid car. Raising animals in groups creates large amounts of methane and CO2. It looks like being vegetarian would help make the earth a lot more sustainable but methane would still be produced even if everyone went vegetarian. Going vegetarian can create problems for people in relation to their own personal health. It can be difficult to get the necessary nutrition like protein without eating meat however this does not hurt the environment. Going vegetarian is also an economical advantage as it takes more land to raise animals then to raise vegetables.

Hybrid cars promote the idea of sustainable mobility, which reduces transportation impacts and petroleum based fuels. Hybrid cars do not use much gas as they are electric. This helps the environment and the economy because cars will not be based solely on oil. This makes buying gas cheaper as well as emitting less toxic gas into the environment reducing greenhouse gasses. But, does a Hybrid actually help the environment in the long run? It is said that the Hybrid is actually bad for the environment but how can that be if they get better gas mileage? When considering the environment gas mileage is not the biggest factor. “It's actually the production of the car that matters. The raw materials' sources, the manufacturing effort, and the shipping costs all have an impact on the environment (Helena 1). The nickel that the hybrid is made out of is a heavy pollutant on the environment. After all the shipping and manufacturing from country to country the development of this nickel costs about $3.25 per mile. The hummer costs around $1.95 per mile in comparison. “Each Prius consumes the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of fuel before its odometer clicks to 1(Helena 1). After the car battery dies it is hard to recycle it creating even more damage. Toyota is improving their battery sustainability by trying to get people to send their batteries back to Toyota. Even California Air Resource Board (CARB) a prominent advocacy group for Hybrid cars is thinking about pulling the plug.
As far as sustainability goes I personally am leaning towards going vegetarian as being more beneficial then owning a hybrid car. It also seams economically more beneficial as it costs less to farm vegetation than animals and it costs a lot of money to create and manufacture a hybrid car. In the long term vegetarians waste fewer resources and use their resources well. The shipping and farming of vegetables is cheaper than that of animals although there is not the added bonus of the leather and other animal based products. This is still better though then the manufacturing of the hybrids and there is not much use that we can get out of an old battery. Obviously more research is needed to discover if vegetarianism is more beneficial than hybrid cars, however, vegetarianism has less known disadvantages that I have found than hybrid cars. I believe we should do more research and if vegetarian lifestyles are better than hybrid cars we should get the information out there and target local and federal news groups to promote the public.