A factory-installed plug-in hybrid option — though I wonder if tapping a coal-powered electrical grid improves the Prius's carbon footprint that greatly. The real questions are: Who will prove more environmental in the court of pseudoscientific, envirosocial one-upsmanship — the owners who hold on to their existing vehicle, or those who trade in for the new, more fuel-efficient ones? And will the Bay Area see more violent, Prius-hating backlash?(Photo by Rick Audet)

Larry Ellison spotted driving out of 2882 Sand Hill Road in Audi R8, probably coming out of the gym where he is rumored to work out.

(Photo by AP/Eckehard Schulz)

It's hard not to notice Serge's brand new, white BMW convertible that he drives around. A 650i costs $82,000 base, and one can only imagine how jealous and frustrated the rest of the team is when they are working long hours and someone with no knowledge of technology (he can't even program in HTML) has a substantially higher equity stake yet offers nothing substantive, and still splurges on a new sports car.

What the project doesn't do is compare the environmental cost per person-mile to that of Google's private commuter bus fleet. Nor does it compare the total carbon footprint over time of a newly-manufactured plug-in electric hybrid to, say, converting an existing automobile or improving public transportation. But then, shiny new cars are the classic California status symbol, and alternative-fuel vehicles are just the latest form of conspicuous consumption — the paint job just screams, "Look at me and how environmentally conscious I am!" (Photo Google.org)

Priuses may be better for Google's corporate image, but not the images it hopes to snap for Street View. It's proved unfeasible to mount the bulky Street View cameras on a Prius. No word on whether Brin has been persuaded to compromise, or if his engineers have somehow found a solution. For now, it seems Google's hiring hundreds of drivers with nothing for them to drive.

(Photo by sebr)

• The view from Elon Musk's Tesla:

• The view from Calacanis's Corvette. Note: It's a base model. Apparently, Weblogs money wasn't enough for Calacanis to afford a real Corvette.

(Photo by Robert Scoble)

Our green issue is that Google pretends to do something about the environment by trying to find sources of energy that are cheaper than coal, while its datacenters whir away, chewing up electricity all the while. Oh, and let's talk about the fact that Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley are located off a freeway exit, making public transit a virtual impossibility for most of its employees who work odd hours. All the Wi-Fi-equipped buses in the world won't make up for that.

Oh, and let's talk about Silicon Valley's electric-car business. Sure, they don't spew hydrocarbons while they jaunt down the highway, but where do you think the electricity that charges them comes from? Coal or natural gas, mostly. Here's a tip on the vehicle that's going to save the planet: It's called a bicycle. But you're never going to trade your car for a Trek, so forget I even mentioned it.

And then there are the gadgets themselves. Computers are designed to last three years, tops; if you get anything more out of them, consider yourself lucky. Cell phones? Replaced every 18 months on average. And if that fancy flat-screen LCD TV develops one bad pixel? Into the junk-heap it goes. A corollary to Moore's Law: Every year or so, you'll be able to buy something more powerful than what you already have. But ask yourself this: Would you be so unhappy if you just kept using your stuff a little longer?

Oh, and then there's Burning Man. People keep trying to make that event green. But until people stop driving massive RVs to it, it's still going to be a massive generator of pollution. Most of the carbon emissions from Burning Man result from driving to and fro. A suggestion: Move it back to a beach in San Francisco, and have the hipsters ride the frickin' N-Judah streetcar there.

Carbon offsets? A lovely market for Wall Street to trade on. But do they make any difference? No. They don't actually reduce carbon emissions; they just shuffle them around. Anyone who thinks buying a carbon offset actually solves global warming likely thinks they're going somewhere when they walk on a treadmill in the gym, too.

So there's Valleywag's green issue. Glad you asked?

Valleywag tipster Cyrus Farivar reports from Tallinn, Estonia:

This van belongs to Linnar Viik, father of the Estonian Internet. He now works at Skype. Turns out, he also loves windsurfing, and apparently needed a vehicle big enough to carry his and his buddies' windsurfing gear to reach the best spots. So what did he do? He bought a big, fuck-off SWEDISH MILITARY TRANSPORT vehicle at auction from a colleague who bought it at an auction. Oh, and it has on-board CDMA/Wi-Fi, and power outlets too.