Posted on 06/05/2005 11:00:05 PM PDT by bloggodocio
Eleven climate change protesters were arrested yesterday after chaining themselves to Land Rovers at the start of a national campaign against 'gas guzzling' four-wheel drive vehicles.
At dawn up to 1,000 Greenpeace activists stormed Ford dealerships across the UK and attached wheelclamps on sports utility vehicles or handcuffed themselves to their steering columns.
The environmental group promised a summer of mobilisation against the marketing of 4x4 vehicles for urban use by Ford, which owns Land Rover. They particularly dislike its latest model, the Range Rover Sport, which they see as aimed at city drivers.
Placards calling the dealerships as 'climate crime scenes' were erected on forecourts in seven cities - including London, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow - in an attempt to disrupt sales.
Last month Greenpeace volunteers disguised as contractors chained themselves to vehicles on the Range Rover production line, bringing work to a halt for a day. Campaigners are furious at the company's refusal to accept a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in Europe.
At a dealership in Kensington, targeted because of its location in the heartland of the 'Chelsea tractor', police arrived minutes after the protesters. Arrests came after more than two hours of negotiations with officers, who eventually carried out body searches to find the keys to heavy-duty chains around protesters' waists.
'Land Rovers are less fuel-efficient than cars manufactured more than 80 years ago, and we are asking the government to tax them off the roads,' said Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, who was present.
Prospective buyers dismissed the stunt as futile. 'They are all a bunch of idiots. This will not change anything,' said one, before driving away in a Range Rover.
Petrol-engined Land Rovers do as little as 12 miles to the gallon and diesel ones 18 mpg in urban areas, said the campaigners. The manager of the Kensington dealer refused to comment on these figures.
In Britain, transport accounts for about a quarter of all emissions that cause climate change.
Long ago I knew a little poem that went "I think that I shall never see, an air polluter like a tree..."
"Prospective buyers dismissed the stunt as futile. 'They are all a bunch of idiots. This will not change anything,' said one, before driving away in a Range Rover."
Ha!
Actually, my son looked at a Lotus? today that gets 60 mpg. It has a rear engine and a 6 speed manual transmission. It's also very light and small. Seemed a bit like a flying coffin.
I'm sure the environmentalists would find something wrong with it, too.
A rational person would be forced to admit that there is little logic to suburban Americans and Brits driving around on their freeways in trucks designed for abandoned logging roads.
Minneapolis and Aspen, sure. LA? Hardly.
Gee, I'd sure like to care. But not when they promote gay politics.
Couldn't happen to a better corporation.
And would a rational person destroy property that will cause greater environmental damage which will result in more SUV's being built to replace these damaged ones?
Greenpeace is nuts. They remind me of the slogan.... Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity!
It's supply and demand; logic has nothing to do with it. However I would think it is more logical to drive in a vehicle that is safer than the average car than one that is not. Car accidents kill people everyday; many of them would have lived if they were driving SUVs. Life is more valuable than saving a little money on gas.
Negotiate what?
Get a cutting torch from the dealer's body shop, and tell them to either give up the keys, or hold very still and grit their teeth...that this may hurt a bit.
Leave 'em there for 3 or 4 days. No food, water, or bathrooms...
You're right, Greenpeace is nuts.
That doesn't mean everything they campaign for is also nuts.
Hitler was in favor of protecting the environment and preventing cruelty to animals. (Cruelty to specific groups of humans was just dandy with him.)
That a whackjob or evil group favors a particular policy does not of itself invalidate that policy.
Maybe so. But when Greenpeace or Planned Parenthood or some other "whackjob" group starts promoting some policy, then that's when I usually turn the other way.
I guess I could ask, and you might could tell me something GP has done that I might agree with, but my overall opinion of them would be the same:
Morons.
And yeah, I did think something like that at first.
And yeah, I did think something like that at first.
When will they aim their protests at celebrities and their limousines?
'Land Rovers are less fuel-efficient than cars manufactured more than 80 years ago, and we are asking the government to tax them off the roads,' said Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, who was present.
Hey, public school teachers are less efficient now than they were 80 years ago. Could we tax them as well? No wait, that's part of the problem already.
Coffins are better built and last much longer.
What is "Ford announces special test drive promotion," Alex?
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