[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!

[freeper4u]

> 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.

Not according to about the EPA and about 80% of the scientists today who have researched the topic.

EPA: "Scientists know for certain that human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2 ), in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times have been well documented. There is no doubt this atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities."


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

First, your 99 Explorer gets 18/23. My 1993 Civic gets 22/28. Second, why are you comparing apples to oranges? A 1999 Civic gets 32/37.


So we try to conserve.

> Hell, oil is so cheap that we leave a good portion of our own wells shut down.

We do not leave wells closed down if the cost to extract is cheaper than the cost to import.

> But, commuting alone in an SUV will always be wasteful and selfish.

I take it from your post that you make good use of your SUV and understand the trade offs between versitility and buying limited special purpose vehicles. That is great. But most people who own SUV's do not. They buy it for what you are right to call "selfish" reasons.

The reason they do that is because the low price to consumers does not take into account any of the negative effects of oil consumption on society such as pollution or paying more money to Saudia Arabia than would otherwise be necessary.

If big auto and oil companies spent more time catching up to the Japanese and less time and money lobbying the government to set it's own standards and marketing bigger vehicles to a mostly selfish US market, then maybe consumers would be a little more intelligent when picking the best car to meet their actual needs.