Music plays – a hush of vaguely Celtic strings topped with a shimmer of bells. Gorgeous actors in plush outdoor gear gaze ecstatically at a magnificent rock formation. Another pair of actors ride expensive mountain bikes along a breathtaking trail. A massive machine sweeps into the frame – a shining SUV, pelting hell-bent-for-leather across a wilderness track and throwing up a sexy spume of dust and gravel in its wake.
Yes, it’s an SUV ad, playing right now, in 2020. In the year that Cascadia is on fire – the smoke from those fires is spreading east over the entire USA and is visible from space – and the gulf coast is being pummeled by hurricane after hurricane after hurricane.
This is bullsh*t.
This is obscene.
This is madness.
But don’t listen to me. Here’s the Union of Concerned Scientists:
Our personal vehicles are a major cause of global warming. Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas. About five pounds comes from the extraction, production, and delivery of the fuel, while the great bulk of heat-trapping emissions—more than 19 pounds per gallon—comes right out of a car’s tailpipe.
In total, the US transportation sector—which includes cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships, and freight—produces nearly thirty percent of all US global warming emissions, more than almost any other sector.
And yet, Americans continue to frenziedly buy SUVs.
In 2019, S.U.V.s and pickups are grabbing a record 70 percent of the market, with 5.9 million sales through June versus 2.5 million for cars. Sales of midsize sedans have nose-dived, from 3 million in 2012 to 1.9 million last year. One of every five cars sold was a midsize sedan in 2012; today it’s barely one in 10.
As a result, Ford and Fiat Chrysler have decided to stop making conventional family sedans and compact cars almost entirely. Exceptions are made for enduringly popular muscle cars like the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger. General Motors hasn’t said it will abandon the car market, but it is killing off several money-losing sedans and hatchbacks, including the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt.
The Guardian reports that:
SUVs were the second largest contributor to the increase in global carbon emissions from 2010 to 2018. No energy sector except power drove a larger increase in carbon emissions, putting SUVs ahead of heavy industry (including iron, steel, cement and aluminium), aviation and shipping.
So why are car companies still selling them? Why do they relentlessly hawk these climate-busting death machines with mawkish music and sweeping video of wholesome mountain bikers at ecstatic play in the wilderness?
BECAUSE WE KEEP BUYING THEM.
This is utter insanity. It’s shameful and obscene.
- Every single institution of authority should be telling the unvarnished truth about climate change.
- The new Biden/Harris administration should adopt and implement the Green New Deal the moment they take office.
- Every politician should put climate change on their top five list of priorities (yes – top five – because I do understand that there is plenty of other horrific sh*t going on right now).
- Every town, county, and municipality should immediately focus on ride sharing, public transportation, bikes and walking as commute options – or better, for those who can, work-from-home schemes.
- And every American – that means all of us here, and all of us voting blue – should boycott corporations that do not immediately undertake a top-to-bottom review of their business model and then fast-track a shift to green tech and low carbon solutions.
As for SUVs, well - if we don’t buy the bloody things, they will not build them.
If we don’t drive the bloody things, they won’t be on (or off) the road.
In the face of a global calamity like climate change it is easy to become overwhelmed. It’s easy to tell yourself that the “little things” you could do won’t make a difference. It is easy to decide that the “fix” (if there is one) is entirely the purview of government, so the best thing to do is to vote blue.
Voting blue is an awesome flex. But we have another power. Even in this American hellscape of late-stage, predatory capitalism, we still have the power of our pennies. We can still withhold them, and if enough of us do it, IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
All we have to do is be willing to give up some ease and convenience, and to change a habit or two, in order let our corporate overlords know that we aren’t buying the emissions-spewing products that they’re selling. The “power of the purse” is real. Car makers are paring back on electric car production because WE DIDN’T BUY ENOUGH OF THEM. This is simple. This is not a difficult concept to grasp. By changing the way we buy, we can change what they make.
It seems to me that the #WearYourDamnMask principle also applies here. With COVID, when someone says, “it’s irritating and annoying to wear a mask, and my glasses steam up!” I say, “Seems to me it would be a lot more irritating and annoying TO BE DEAD.”
Doing without beef, eschewing fast fashion, producing less waste, or driving a small hybrid are all easy steps to take if the reward is that we can bend the curve on our emissions.
This summer isn’t just an unfortunate series of unconnected, never-to-be-repeated disasters. It is the overture. It is the prelude. It is an amuse bouche – a tiny taste of what is to come. And what’s to come is going to be a HELL of a lot worse than just a loss of ease and convenience.
#HairOnFirePeople
Post written by Kïra Thomsen-Cheek