There’s easier, more effective battles to fight. People aren’t giving up their SUV’s, and they are a symptom of a bigger problem anyway. Good public transportation could eliminate millions of cars, roads, and road maintenance.
A few other ideas:
- Coal power is disgusting and doesn’t even make sense economically anymore.
- Cruise ships and mega yachts should flat out be banned. They use a ton of energy and dump sewage right into the ocean
- Heavily tax gas powered lawnmowers. They have a surprisingly large environmental impact because they have no pollution controls and often burn a mixture of oil and gas.
The increase in SUVs isn’t driven by people’s natural preferences; it’s driven by automakers being incentivized by stupid CAFE standards to push SUVs on them. Those bad regulations are what we need to fix.
This entire article is quotable, but this one stuck with me: “The analysis, by the International Energy Agency, found that the rising emissions from SUVs in 2023 made up 20% of the global increase in CO2, making the vehicles a major cause of the intensifying climate crisis.”
Gas too cheap?
Public transport too shitty.
Waking out the door 90 minutes before bus arrives, then having to jog in work clothes after arrival to get to shift on time, and waiting an hour after work because the closest scheduled bus leaves 10 minutes before shift end. All of this being a good day with no delays.
Biggest fucking gift to the oil companies. Impossible option for many who aren’t a single person with no kids.
It’s not a gift TO the oil companies, but FROM them.
This. I spoke to our mayor about it at a city council meeting, and he told me that the bus service was set up to maximize coverage for the people with no other choice, specifically at the cost of desirable stops and frequency.
Can we add The Guardian to a tabloid ban? These articles are shit. They can’t even cherry pick their own data consistently.
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the graph in the article shows SUV sales are still less then cars. Fine print: only in rich countries
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to even come close, they have to lump in EV SUV’s, which doesn’t add to the CO2 they are complaining about.
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ahhhh it takes more effort to counter bad journalism which is why it’s so prevalent but here a rundown:
• 20% CO2 production is for conventional SUV’s. This doesn’t include electric which has the highest adoption rates.
• More EV vehicles are classified and built as SUV’s due to weight, limiting adoption of electric cars, but is still increasing at 55%
• Carmakers don’t necessarily want bigger and heavier cars; that is more material to buy. They want to make what sells and bigger, heavier cars have better crash test ratings.
Just more churn from the incite and radicalize machine: The Guardian.
Carmakers don’t necessarily want bigger and heavier cars; that is more material to buy.
But it’s higher margins, and they can phase out lower margin vehicles by marketing them less and producing fewer of them.
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perceptions that they are more comfortable
I gotta say, as a big and tall guy who’s developing bad knees, SUVs are more comfortable. So nice not having to bend my knees so much while struggling to find extra joints in my neck and back to get in. Same with the wider thing - so happy to no longer knock heads getting in at the same time as a passenger - so happy not to knock shoulders. So happy to have adequate leg room (I think it was a Volvo C30 I tried where my shoe literally didn’t fit. My feet aren’t even all that wide but I literally could not press the gas without also pressing the brake) and have that leg room in front of me rather than off to the side somewhere. That might be just me though
Unless you’re talking full sized truck-based SUVs. Then no
It’s not like most of the population can fit inside a generic hatchback…
I get that bigger cars make sense for some people, but definitely not majority.
