Interesting video on why these large SUVs have become the most popular new vehicle to buy, using clever marketing tricks to convince people they need the more impractical and unsafe option.

  • Water Bowl Slime
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    21 year ago

    SUVs are the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions since 2010. We don’t have the time to pick and choose which polluters to target, we need to be targeting all of them. And SUVs are a growing problem that we need to address before they become even more of an issue.

    And because I’m confident that you didn’t watch much of this video, THESE are the vehicles that he and I take issue with:

    This picture compares an SUV to a station wagon, a cheaper, smaller, safer vehicle with more space. What use value does an SUV have that station wagons don’t? Besides running over pedestrians.

    Also, if you’re concerned about pickup trucks then it’s in your interest to regulate them too. Because they have gotten larger and more expensive with much smaller beds, the thing people ostensibly buy them for.

    I’ve said enough already and I don’t want to continue this conversation anymore. If you don’t see the issue with people driving tank-sized cars for everyday travel then there’s nothing I can tell you to convince you otherwise.

    • @Lemmy_Mouse@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 year ago

      The initial link I provided linked to multiple sources, the primary of which was broken however I have found it (https://climateaccountability.org/carbonmajors.html).

      The key word is increase, not total. They are not the second overall contributors to pollution, only the second highest contributors to the increase of emissions. The highest overall contributors to pollution are still industry, however even if it were SUVs #1, the person to target is the bourgeoisie. The entertainer’s argument seems to be to shame and/or harass consumers, but this is also ultra left as it fails to address the cause of why these vehicles are purchased as well as taking into account economic inter-connectivity. Just telling people to not drive them isn’t an answer.

      Yes station wagons are a more reasonable vehicle to drive in terms of size but not necessarily in terms of usability. However, this is again addressing the issue in the country side and not in the cities which is likely insecurity exacerbated by the police state in them as well as the bolstering crime rates of which the police do nothing to solve as that is not their function…“If you can’t have a gun why not an SUV” some may be thinking. This is speculation. It is also likely status-based which is directly linked to the economy and the extravagance portrayed by the labor aristocracy and pette bourgeois.

      As well, how are these machines created? In a factory. How is power produced? Via gas and oil production. So even if SUVs are a mechanism for this pollution, it again should be accounted towards the owners of these means of production and those who craft and direct the economy (their tools) not the workers who work on these mechanisms or use them to make ends meet. That entire argument is liberal. The issue with pollution is overproduction for the sake of commodity production to make insane profits to off-set a constantly falling rate of profit. It’s systemic, if all we had to do was just stop buying SUVs and the problem would be solved, such a problem wouldn’t exist in the first place as it’s immeasurably smaller than such a problem of mass pollution in the first place. It is such a threat because it is systemic, otherwise it could never get this big is what I’m saying. So not only is this barking up the wrong tree, it’s blaming the kid with matches for starting the fire as opposed to the conditions which necessitated such deviant behavior in the first place. Do you understand what I’m trying to say here?

      • Water Bowl Slime
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        21 year ago

        I get what you’re saying and I agree, the people who direct industry are by far the most responsible for SUV usage.

        I wasn’t arguing against that, I was arguing against the notion that SUVs and pickups (the humongous modern ones) are reasonable things for urban and suburban people to drive.

        And though the guy spent a lot of time mocking the stereotypical macho man, his policy proposals were focused on regulating industry to move production back towards smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles & making existing light trucks safer and more practical. He didn’t propose for everyone to “just stop buying SUVs” as a solution. The cogent historical overview he gave for how current SUV production came to be suggests he has a solid understanding of economics from a systemic perspective.

        I don’t want to sound like I’m his pr manager because I’m not and I don’t care what your opinion of him is. I’m just taken aback by how you received someone who was making salient points, albeit in a less-than-communist way. And yes I know the devil is in the details and actual laws will need to implement these ideas with much more specificity and rigor, but this was a YouTube video, not a board meeting.