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For those of us even vaguely concerned about global warming and ecological degradation more generally, there is a lot to hate about the automobile industry with its excessive consumption of limited resources and huge contributions to pollution and global warming.
While it may seem absurd to hate a product, as such, when there are so many other worthy objects for our antipathy, the SUV is a statement about excess implying outsize scorn for the environment. These needlessly huge vehicles suggest a world in which endless waste is possible, even fashionable.
Their carbon footprint is large both in terms of the energy required for manufacture and the gasoline required to accelerate these air-conditioned juggernauts around city streets. Yet the cost of travel involves more than carbon emission and environmental degradation.
For the cost of gasoline is measured not only in dollars but also in terms of the blood shed in wars that are fought over oil. If we conserved oil better and developed alternative energy sources, there would be no rationale for fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
As if this were not reason enough to hate SUVs, I recently encountered the following gem from The Spirit Level, a book about social inequality that places these ugly vehicles at the heart of our internal social division:
"Perhaps another marker of corroded social relations and lack of trust among people was the rapid rise in popularity of the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) through the 1980s and 1990s These vehicles are known in the UK by the derogatory term "Chelsea tractors" - Chelsea being a rich area of London, the name draws attention to the silliness of driving rugged off-road vehicles in busy urban areas. But the vehicles themselves have names that evoke images of hunters and outdoorsmen - Outlander, Pathfinder, Cherokee, Wrangler, etc. Others evoke an even tougher image, of soldiers and warriors, with names like Trooper, defender, Shogun, Raider, and Crossfire. These are vehicles for the ‘urban jungle,' not the real thing."
"Not only did the popularity of SUVs suggest a preoccupation with looking tough, it also reflected growing mistrust, and the need to feel safe from others, Josh Lauer, in his paper, ‘Driven to extremes [2]', asked why military ruggedness became prized above speed or sleekness, and what the rise of the SUV said about American society. He concluded that the trend reflected American attitudes towards crime and violence, an admiration for rugged individualism and the importance of shutting oneself off from others - mistrust." pp. 57-58
In conclusion, the SUV is not only destroying the planet, it is attacking the moral fiber of our society! Hate on!
1. Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
2. Lauer, J. (2005). Driven to extremes: Fear of crime and the rise of the sport utility vehicle in the United States.
