Hummer or H2 ?
Posted on 11/26/2004 5:44:46 PM PST by Horatio Gates
LONDON, Nov 25 (AFP) - Gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, the increasingly popular all-terrain cars, should be forced to sport labels just like cigarette packs announcing their terrible health and environmental impact, a British think tank said Thursday.
Just like smokers in the European Union buy tobacco marked with "Smoking Kills" and other dire warnings, New Economics Foundation (nef) offered its own slogans for super-stickers which they said should be slapped onto the hoods and sides of cars.
"Global warming kills," "Climate change can seriously damage your health" or even "Driving seriously harms you and others around you" were among the list of warnings proposed by the London-based think tank.
The nef said SUVs, also called four-by-fours or four-wheel-drives, were "disproportionately responsible for emissions of climate-change fuelling CO2 (carbon dioxide), other air pollutants, and traffic fatalities".
But, it warned in a statement, their sales were increasing and now represented one out of every four new cars sold in the United States and one in seven in Britain.
"SUVs are dangerous, fabulously polluting and part of a wider transport problem that is, according to the World Health Organization, set to be the world's third most common cause of death and disability by 2020," nef policy director Andrew Simms said.
"We need labelling to encourage people not to drive these four-wheel behemoths in the same way we encourage people not to smoke. If we can't we may need to find a very large ashtray for our planet's future."
The group said that as with smoking, regulations to cut down greenhouse gas emissions did not work and that as with smokers, drivers could be shamed into behavior change through "emotive content".
Its campaign, due to be covered in the New Statesman magazine on Friday, comes ahead of an upcoming international conference on climate change in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
SUVs have exploded on the US and international markets, from traditional US makers' Ford Explorer and Jeep Cherokee to Britain's Land Rover, and on to luxury versions put out by European automakers like Volvo, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes.
General Motors' Hummer, a mammoth model based on the military vehicle Humvee used in combat, is one of the largest and least fuel-efficient, which retails in the United States starting above 50,000 dollars (38,000 euros) and gets about 10 miles to the gallon (4.25 kilometers per litre).
Great comment, and I like the "alertus vomitus!" LOL!
FYI: there is a perfectly good English word "Discourage". Or is that a bit HARSH for a PC weinie?
"Alertus Vomitus!" PING
"General Motors' Hummer, a mammoth model based on the military vehicle Humvee used in combat.."
wrong
It is based on the Chevy Silverado pickup platform.
Every generation for thousands of years, has sought to pass off more to their children than they had. Progress may not have been as robust as it has been in the last century, but people have always sought to attain a better standard of living.
When I hear calls like this, I have to struggle to comprehend the idiocy that fostered it. This idiocy goes counter to the very spark that is mankind IMO.
To those who find meaning in it, please procede to your nearest mortuary. Do the deed so the rest of us can get on with living, planning, and achieving.
The euros who think this way remind me of some jealous kid who doesn't have toys that are as nice as yours and wants to take them or break them.
I agree 100% It's amusing how they've labeled themselves as "progressives."
There is no concrete evidence that CO2 admissions are causing global warming.
Do these guys get paid for this? I can make as profound a statement as they are.
Gee, if "driving seriously" can do all of that, I wonder what driving flippantly can do to you and others around you...
One guy even wrote a book about the car called "Unsafe At Any Speed."
Now here we are 40 years later and cars are infinitely safer, the exhaust is almost cleaner than the air it takes in, and gas mileage is light years better. But they still aren't happy.
I say screw 'em.
Now excuse me while I take my Ford Expedition 4x4 out for a spin for no other reason than it might piss off a dandelion-loving, tree-frog-humping, no-shampoo-using, drug-crazed, sassy-mouthed, left-wing wacko, hippie freak.
What I've always wondered about these "think tanks:" Who pays them, and who asks them what to "think?"
Nope. Not until the left gets everyone out of cars and onto government controlled mass transit then they will be happy. They have so much to be miserable about lately.
My SUV
...is more economical than the 1972, 350 CID Nova it replaces-- 22 MPG versus 16 MPG.
And I didn't buy it to make some kind of statement-- my old car was literally falling apart as I drove it, the Amigo was cheap and in good condition, and I needed something less low to the ground to transport my dying Mother-in-law and her old dog to their respective Doctors.
These overcontrolling Nanny-Nazis just "don't get it."
Back before they passed so many damn-fool laws & regulations, people transported their families in station wagons-- and when the "choices" were reduced, they switched to trucks, vans, and SUV's. So now, the Eternal Whine-- "Daddy, make them do what I want them to do!" continues.
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