Let's stop the hybrid nonsense...25 k for a vehicle that in 10 years or less will need $3000 worth of new batteries ( at today's prices)...we can reduce the monster engines available, make achievable mpg requirements, and seek truly efficient alternatives while we save on current use of resources.
NOW, if we REALLY want to save our resources...how much could we save if frivolous travel were reduced? Yeah, I know...we're not giving up our vacations, ski trips, etc.,...and I'm not giving up my full size pickup that's used for its intended purpose: work.
Check out the nightime satellite photos of any major city in the US: Nearly every skyscraper has nearly every light burning...while the buildings are empty...7 days per week....
We have 70,000 air flights worldwide every day...some half of those are domestic US flights, leaving every major city every few minutes, usually with plenty of empty seats, each carrying 10-25,000 gallons of JP4 (or such), burning 3-4,000 gph, at ticket prices that cause airlines to go bankrupt and seek bailout with taxpayer dollars in the name of "preserving our necessary transportation"...MANY pilots have seen their pensions evaporate, their pay cut in half, ad infinitum. Now we have the new monster Airbus carrying 68,000 gals of fuel!
QE II's Fuel Consumption: 18.05 tons per hour, or 433 tons per day (144,333 gals/day). Every day's operation would run 15,000 average SUV's for a day.
50 lines run more than 300 cruise ships whose discharge faces little or no regulations...yet personal watercraft must meet stringent discharge regs (as they should)...
A 2000-3000 passenger cruise ship can generate enormous waste...
145,000 - 211,000 gals/day of graywater
26,000 + gals/day of black water (sewage)
7000+ gals/day oily bilge water
227 tons of garbage & solid waste
22 tons of toxic waste
Example: The QE II stats (from their website, bragging about energy use):
QE2 is the fastest merchant ship in operation...The diesel electric system produces 130,000 hp, which is the most powerful propulsion plant of any merchant ship in the world. The 95 MW total power output is enough to light a city the size of Southampton.
Fresh Water: 1,852.0 tons
Laundry Water: 489.0 tons
Diesel Oil: 206.8 tons
Fuel Oil: 4,381.4 tons
Lubricating Oil: 335.7 tons
Ballast: 4,533.0 tons
Feed Water: 113.8 tons
9.5 million passengers boarded cruise ships in 20003...projected to be 22 million by 2010. Multiply that by the scary figures above...
It gets better...international health organizations have published data leading to the suspicion that wastewater from cruise ships (and other ships as well) may be a leading cause of red tide and shellfish toxins. 68 of 70 samples of treated wastewater from cruise ships exceeded acceptable fecal coliform and pathogen levels by 1000-10,000 times!
The air pollution generated these behemoths exceed that of 350,000 vehicles with levels of lead and sulphur byproducts 3,000 times that of gasoline. Now, on a 10 day cruise we're talking 3.5 million vehicles' worth of pollutants just so folks can gamble, drink and eat to excess while helping to destroy our environment. Note also that much of the income from these vessels goes to foreign lands.
Millions of square yds of delicate coral reefs have been destroyed by the anchors of cruise ships, and similarly harbors are seeing the destruction of eelgrass beds and other marine flora.
Some may argue about finite totals above, all of which were gleaned from internet sources. But nitpicking aside, the REAL energy hogs are the sacred cows listed that avoid attention while vehicle owners are castigated as sacrificial lambs.