Slandering SUV drivers: Environmentalists go overboard with smear tactics

Union Leader ^ | 1/09/03

[helpontheway]

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said, "SUVs - Big Wheels for Small Minds." Of course, this was on a little Hyundai. Envy is so transparent.

[meyer]

Yes, we all use ME oil. <p.I use ME oil, you use YOURN.

[Lee_Atwater]

I didn't say that the profit...

Point noted - Misunderstanding regretted

How about you?

I purchased a used truck just to have one, I might use it one day a week.

[Lee_Atwater]

Thank you for the link. There is nothing worse than morons with money and free time.

[jrg]

I didn't say that the profit, from four to the low five figures depending on the model, was terrible. Just that I had a lot better things to do with my money. How about you?

Yes, but the point is....it's his money....

[meyer]

And, if we use less ME oil we reduce the problem. And global warming. And pollution.

Global warming is part of the normal fluctuations that the earth's atmospheric temperature follows. Man's effects on earth's temperature are essentially a myth.

As for pollution, I'll stack my 1999 Explorer up against any 10 year old Honda.

So we try to conserve.

If there's such a crisis, they why are oil prices, adjusted for inflation, lower than they were in the 80's, 70's, and even the '60's? We conserve when it becomes economically beneficial to do so. Hell, oil is so cheap that we leave a good portion of our own wells shut down.

A single yuppy has more _choice_ about what to drive than a poor family.

And the majority of those that you call poor families (though the poor in the US are vastly better off than in most places in the world) climb up the socioeconomic ladder (except for those liberal welfare cases who choose not to work). Besides, having a choice in vehicles is something to strive for, not to be scorned.

Note: environmentalists have been advocating buying clunkers to crush them for years. Emission controls are lasting longer so clunkers are getting cleaner. But, commuting alone in an SUV will always be wasteful and selfish.

Well, if there were a pollution epidemic caused by automobiles, I'd agree with the "environMENTALists", but there is no such epidemic. Auto emissions are lower each year since the inception of emissions controls in the early '70's. Had you been around in the '60's, you'd know what pollution really was.

As for commuting alone in an SUV, do you think it would be more energy efficient for somebody to buy several vehicles, each with its own intended purpose (and consider the cost of production and the use of resources in this question)? Or, would you expect that a person would buy one vehicle to serve all, or as many of their own purposes as possible.

I drive an SUV. I often drive it alone. I drive it on trails; I tow with it, I commute with it, I take it on vacations (and ride in comfort, I might add). Its versatile and it meets as many of my needs as possible. And it doesn't cost that much to operate - I get better mileage with my Explorer than I did with my first car, an economical (?) 1971 Maverick!

[GailA]

You're welcome, the truth is out there if we but choose to look. I trust Bidinottos' work, as I've had the pleasure of corresponding with him and of being able to verify his research on the crime expose articles he wrote for Reader's Digest. He's very through and accurate and uses only credible stats.

[N. Theknow]

Dear Ms. Huffington,
I am somewhat puzzled by your ad denouncing SUV owners as supportive of terrorism. Perhaps your thought process did not allow you to perceive the mote in your own eye. In looking at your residence, one is wont to profer the question how many kilowatt/hours of electricity does it take to heat/cool/illuminate that place, 24/7? I am not sure, but one can suppose that you have other properties which require heat/cool/illumination. And how many kilowatt/hours do they require, 24/7? When all those kilowatt/hours are sucked off the power grid, one can only ponder how much oil was burned to create those electrical units. Of course, they could have been made by other means, but nonetheless they all came off the power grid that also feeds hospitals, day care centers and nursing homes. Not only are you and others of your ilk supportive of terrorism to a higher degree than SUV owners, but you are also depriving children, the sick and elderly of low cost electricity by creating a larger demand.

It also requires less oil to go to the store and pick up a package of hot dogs than it takes to fly in your caviar from Russia, or than it takes to chaffeur your guests to and fro for your soirees and faux "charity" balls. Of course, you probably did not research how much oil it takes to fuel a limo as compared to SUV's. Research has no place in the journalism of accusation

You may also wonder why people in large cities such as New York prefer to drive SUV's. This is no doubt due to your lack of having driven in a large city. Not only is the view of traffic better, but one also has a greater sense of security when sharing city streets with delivery vans, trucks and buses. Even the "perky" Katie Couric admitted she would not want to be in "her Honda" and be in an accident with a Ford Excursion. One can only surmise she would likewise not care to be in "her Honda" and be in an accident with a truck or a bus. Of course, this is laughable since she was attempting to chastise Ford for making the Excursion. We all know that Ms. Perky has never set her derriere in anything other than a limo in quite sometime, and no SUV driver would want to be in an accident with a limo as only the limo occupants' lawyers would know how badly they were injured.

So if you want to "pin" a terrorist supporter label on someone by reason of how much oil they consume, look no further than yourself and your associates. And if you really want to blame someone for supporting terrorism, look no further than those who would keep the United States dependent upon Middle East oil by denying the exploration of our own oil reserves. Not only are they the true supporters of terrorism, they are also the enablers of oppressive, backward regimes that are in different time zones that are measured in centuries rather than hours.

[oldironsides]

Huffington is a foreign born elitist. She was married to a wealthy homosexual while he ran for office to assist him while he tried to fool the voters. She is an opportunist and goofball. He left for a far better partner.

[mvpel]

Profit on an SUV is about $10,000 per unit, versus a few hundred (compact cars) to a couple thousand dollars (luxury sedans) per unit according to some information I had access to a few years back at one of the major automakers.

[jpl]

A myth even the Bush admin now subscribes to, I guess.

For the record, the Bush administration's official position on anthropogenic global warming isn't that they subscibe to it. Their position is that they believe the science is uncertain and needs further research. And the more science that comes out, the more the notion is refuted (which is why the IPCC keeps revising their future forecasts downwards).

[meyer]

It says, "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise."

Then, yes, after feeling some political heat, Bush said the doc was "put out by the bureaucracy."

Wasn't that the report where the synapsis, as quoted above, had little to do with the actual brunt of the article. I'll state again that man's contribution to the temperature of the earth is negligable at best.

[Made In The USA]

Mewz, why should we care how much profit is made by the automaker? If a consumer is willing to pay a price, any price, what's the difference?

I'd also challenge your suggestion of the SUV vehicle being unsafe. No, the SUV I own doesn't handle like my sportscar and we drive it accordingly. It is however perfectly suited for this snowy season we've had, and we are safe on our long rides home. If your thought is centered on a belief that a smaller car will take on more damage in an accident than my SUV - I can say that yes it probably will. Further, I hope it does.

[abigkahuna]

folks shouldn't get their undies in a bunch over SUV's just wait five years...styles, needs and desires change, (as will fuel comsumption and mileage)

[MEGoody]

Personally, I hate SUVs, but it's none of my business if someone wants to drive one.

[jpl]

Personally, I believe that humans could indeed have an impact on the global climate. I think it would probably take a large-scale nuclear war to do it though. And even then, the global climate would quite likely begin to restore itself after a few decades or so.

Just one major eruption of a large volcano such as Mount Pinatubo puts out more "greenhouse gases" than we humans have put out in our entire existence.

Do some internet research on the "Medieval Optimum" and you'll find that global temperatures back then were significantly warmer than they are now. The global climate operates in long-term and short-term cycles, and these are affected by a combination of the Milankovitch Cycles and the rotation and output of the sun.

Nobody denies that there has indeed been a slight ground-based warming phenomenon observed in the last century. Almost all of this warming however is due to the urban heat island effect, which has nothing at all to do with "greenhouse gases". No similar detectable warming pattern has taken place higher up in the atmosphere (which all of the computer models indicate should happen). This so-called "global warming" would really be more accurately described as "urban warming".

[MEGoody]

"The connections between drug use and terror and SUV's and terror _are_ similar."

Only to someone who is too doped up to drive his SUV.

[MEGoody]

"I didn't say that the profit, from four to the low five figures depending on the model, was terrible. Just that I had a lot better things to do with my money. How about you?"

So here's a new skill for you to learn. . .negotiation. You can use it when you purchase your next car. It's really quite amazing.