Comments | 6_bleen_7: "Green" SUVs? Yeah, right.

6_bleen_7

"Green" SUVs? Yeah, right.

Feb 09, 2008 00:08

In a truly incredible display of irony, a trade magazine calling itself Green Car Journal named its 2008 Green Car of the Year: the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, an SUV that delivers a whopping 21 miles per gallon in combined highway/city driving. With near-miraculous fuel efficiency like that, we can only assume it comes with a free clip-on ponytail, ( Read more... )

rant, suvs

Comments 16

burgundy February 9 2008, 05:23:45 UTC

...

...

You just...

that broke my brain.

One of my coworkers - a guy whom I like very much, and who is sensible about a great many things, drives a (de)Forester. He has a wife, and a baby, and another on the way. He works in central Austin, and lives in North Central Austin, and as far as I know does nothing at all special on the road. He says it's not "really" an SUV. When pressed, he admits that there's no legit definition to support this contention, he just doesn't want to be that balding middle-class guy with two kids and an SUV. Well guess what, buddy? YOU ARE THAT GUY. And it's one thing to try to create rationalizations so you don't have to confront ugly reality, and it's another to create rationalizations so you don't have to confront an ugly reality that you chose for yourself. It's not like someone makes him driving an SUV. And he's really interested in energy policy, and may soon be getting a much better paying job working for the electric utility in a policy capacity, and ( ... )

6_bleen_7 February 9 2008, 05:45:21 UTC

Well said! Unfortunately, denial is a lot like snoring: it's obvious to everyone but the denialist, but it's practically impossible to convince him of the fact.

That reminds me a bit of a wonderful comic by Nina Paley. Now that I think of it, I should add it to the post, as well.

samcurt February 9 2008, 06:06:49 UTC

As the comic is concerned, I don't consider the playset of the size in the comic as particularly bad. Nina should have drawn it bigger-- or I have missed something.

6_bleen_7 February 14 2008, 22:32:10 UTC

I think the point is that the mother thinks of herself as enough of an environmentalist that she would normally object to using wood in that quantity, rather than the actual size of the jungle gym. I didn't think it particularly large, either.

Thread 6

samcurt February 9 2008, 05:32:43 UTC

Should we blame the protestant churches for not preaching about basic virtues, but, rather, bacame a dog of the corporate world?

6_bleen_7 February 9 2008, 05:46:59 UTC

I forget who it was, but some Fundamentalist preacher gave a long-winded and nonsensical argument about how Jesus would have endorsed capitalism over other economic systems. I'll have to go find that, 'cause it was hilarious (except where it was horrifying).

samcurt February 9 2008, 06:08:42 UTC

Well, I read a book written by a clegic on why Christianity is not Maoism-- but that's certainly off-topic.

6_bleen_7 February 14 2008, 22:39:01 UTC

Crazy-I thought that hardly needed to be said, as Maoism tends toward atheism, at least as far as I understand it. I can't say I'm well versed on the differences between Maoism and Marxism, though I believe that the University of Science & Technology of China requires a course in Principles of Marxist Philosophy as well as An Introduction to Mao Ze-dong Thought.

Thread 5

jedibl February 9 2008, 15:26:32 UTC

My god, that's awful! Fun with fuzzy math!

Out of curiosity, though (and because I can't be bothered to look up the stats myself right now...) Do Pickups, Jeeps, and Minivans actually get any better gas mileage than SUVs? My impression with minivans, at least, was that they didn't. In which case, while I'd probably be the type to get a minivan to haul my family (and/or large loads of stuff) around rather than an SUV, I'm not sure it accomplishes anything favorable over an SUV other than having a lower center of gravity and therfore being safer to drive.

samcurt February 9 2008, 17:29:44 UTC

Pickups has their real utility. Jeeps are real outdoor cars unlike the half-assed SUVs-- and they share similar mileage.

A quick search on Wikipedia: Honda Odyssey is 17/25-- if the Tahoe hybrid (21 highway) is the best a SUV then get, then it's not that difficult for a hybrid minivan to get a 27 or even 30 highway in a few years.

ruthling February 9 2008, 16:22:44 UTC

word.

"...and a vasectomy" hee hee :)

6_bleen_7 February 14 2008, 22:39:15 UTC

Thanks!

Speaking of cars and gas... samcurt February 9 2008, 17:15:14 UTC

In Hong Kong, where I lived, it's already having $6 gas-- exactly HKD13.5/liter of regular gas, converted into USD by World Bank buying power parity of 1USD=5.5HKD. If you are having $6 gas, we'd have $12, effectively eliminate most cars but those of the richest. (HK's public transport runs on diesel and taxis run on LPG, which are not taxed. Gasoline is subject to a HKD6/liter tax.)

Which meant:

For most people, driving is leisure rather than transportation.
Minivans are popular there, since it's the kind of car they'd use when they need to.

(Little dirty trick to decrease car use in the financial center in HK: the zoning law actually limits the max amount of parking space.)

So the law is clear: When you enter the city, you've to disarm (Rule from the time of the Romans); when you enter the city center, you've to get off your car-- or pay up (Singapore has electronic road pricing. Hong Kong has their $10/hr parking charge).