[Jim-Bob]

There are unintended consequences to every technology man has ever devised, and hybrid/electric cars are no exception. Thus, they are harmful to the environment. The question is, are they more harmful that current technologies and the answer to that is "maybe". That question remains to be answered though as the technology is not prevalent enough to have the full answer just yet. The bigger problem with them is that these materials are indeed rare and there may not be enough of them to go around. If we really want to have a future full of more efficient vehicles then the answer may lie in more responsibly applying these limited resources to smaller vehicles instead of greenwashed SUVs and large cars like the hybrid Tahoe and Camry. That way, they can have the maximum impact to do the most good for the most people.

As far as China's environmental damage from mining these metals, well I don't feel the least bit sorry for them. It was their choice to do so in an environmentally damaging way so that they could get hard currency. They could have done the moral thing and taken better care of their part of the planet but chose not to. China is a sovereign country after all-it could have opted not to.

So what was my vote? I voted No because the toxins are indeed deadly. That is an incontrovertible fact. Whether it is more damaging than fossil fuels though is an issue that is subject to debate and one that I do not know enough about to come to a good conclusion on just yet.