There is a story floating around certain parts of the blogosphere about a Hummer that implodiated in a fast food parking lot, felled by a wee bump against a stanchion. It is amusing and ironic and, dare I say, schadenfreude-inducing? I think everyone with a functioning brain stem can agree that Hummers are ridiculous. They serve no purpose I can ascertain, other than as a conspicuous symbol of consumerism. They get terrible mileage, they are too overgrown for their frames, and they hog too much road and parking lot real estate. Worst, they are not actually built for the one thing that they appear to have been designed for: off-roading.
So go ahead, hate on Hummers and their owners. If nothing else, it gives me one more reason to dislike Teh Ahr-nahld.
However, it seems a little short-sighted to me to hate on all SUV owners, as they–and their SUVs–are not all created equal. It is probably not surprising that it makes the Baby Shelly cranky when folks lump all SUVs together as gas-guzzling earth-destroyers driven by over-protective mommies. Not only is it untrue, but it is spectacularly ignorant to cast asparagus upon a lowly tool instead of addressing the underlying issue: crass consumerism. SUVs of the urban assault variety are merely a symptom, not the disease itself. If it wasn’t SUVs, it would be Cadillacs or some other flashy, eco-unfriendly ride.
Look, we all make choices. Some of those choices have a larger environmental impact than others. Some of those choices are sacrosanct and above reproach, while others are fair game for criticism. So when I hear a woman rationalizing her decision to cart her three kids around in a car that gets worse gas mileage than my SUV, while criticizing those who drive SUVs, I have to think, “WTF?” While I don’t normally feel any need to second guess anyone’s decision to have as many kids as she wants, or to drive whatever she wants, when my choices are questioned, I have to put it into perspective. My little SUV and I could not possibly have the sort of environmental impact that three children and a Beemer will have. So, when you start waving around the “SUVs are bad for the environment flag,” you might want to take a good look at your own choices and how they affect the environment.
red paper boat 