I heard through the grapevine that there is a study out there according to which the hybrid car Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage in the long run due to the toxicity of the manufacture and disposal of its battery than could possibly be done by driving the gas guzzling Hummer in that time frame

 

Can't remember who wrote the article but it has been posted numerous times. Try the search feature and you should be able to find it.

 

I saw it when I did my thesis on alternative fuels. It included weird stats like the battery manufacturing plant had a bad environmental record. The claim was a hummer would last 300k miles and a prius only 100k. It claimed the battery was highly toxic but it isn't only the nickle is toxic in the battery and that isn't considered highly toxic. Also unless you just tossed the batteries in a landfill when they could no longer hold a charge they are 97% recyclable. Most of the points made were easily debunked and because of that it overshadowed an otherwise good point that the prius isn't as environmentally friendly as people think.