Study: Hummer more earth-friendly than Prius

This is a story from several months ago, but it seems to have resurfaced on the online commentary scene. I hesitated to post it originally due to the way the research was done, which in my mind seemed a bit misleading (e.g. of course R&D would be less with a Hummer’s internal combustion engine – but how many decades did it take to get to where we are?). I figured I’d post a few links from both sides and let you all decide which side you’d like to defend. I believe there are some interesting facts and arguments – the following is taken from an article in The Recorder:

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

You can check out one of the original articles from Reason.org:
Have You Hugged a Hummer Today?

Here is a blog post from AutoBlogGreen.com – There are some sharp “green” views in the comments:
Prius snob challenges data that shows hybrids, Hummer have same lifetime energy consumption

What do YOU think?