"Nuculear" power is now eco-friendly, yeah right!

Now that everyone (including me) is becoming more and more eco-conscious, P.R. is still just a bunch of fallacies to convince people they are doing "the right thing for the environment", when in fact in some cases it might be just the opposite. Such is the case of the "infamous" Chevy Volt. The Volt is not just ugly! (the only good looking Holden is Amanda Holden), but it's probably even worse in terms of "eco-friendliness" than the good 'ol petrol powered cars. Here's why:

According to the small paragraph on it's wikipedia entry, regarding "battery charging emissions", the chevy volt will still cause some greenhouse emissions. For starters, after the 40 mile/battery charge, the car will switch to normal gasoline power. Regardless if it's more efficient in that area than other hybrid cars, let's not forget the emissions caused for generating the necessary electricity to charge the batteries overnight. Unless you live in an are where 100% of the electricity comes from hydroelectric power, the electricity will be generated from a mix of "dirty coal", nuclear power, and other pollutant sources. The most generous figure of a reduction of 15% CO2 emissions, is based on the USA's power grid which uses a lot, a lot of nuclear power! So, they will be reducing a bit of greenhouse gases, but still generating a lot of nuclear waste! The calculations for Australia show that GM's Volt emissions will be in fact more or less the same as any other hybrid car! So, there's no real advantage at all in my view.

Public relations, and propaganda about this "revolutionary" idea, are just an example of brain-washing techniques used by large corporations by bombarding the media with their particular views. I just watched a variation of a recent Holden advert showing a pregnant woman buying some Holden baby apparel, and the voice off saying something about Holden (and thus the new GM) saving the planet for future generations... Yeah right!

ciao