November 26, 2004
THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
4x4s 'should carry health warning' (Richard Black, BBC, November, 26th, 2004)
Four-wheel-drive vehicles, those rugged beasts designed for the open hillside but more commonly found doing the city school run, are so polluting and dangerous that they should carry a cigarette packet-style health warning.That is the view of UK think tank the New Economics Foundation, which outlines its arguments about the vehicles - also known as Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) - in the magazine New Statesman.
"They're really Satan's little run-around," NEF's policy director, Andrew Simms, told BBC News.
"They make an entirely unnecessary contribution to one of the biggest environmental problems we face - global warming - and there's a huge and unacknowledged health crisis which results from vehicle emissions."
According to the World Health Organization, vehicle emissions are responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths in western Europe alone each year.The agency also ascribes around 150,000 deaths globally each year to climate change.
A wise blogger once said anything that ill-treats others is a sin.
Posted by Peter Burnet at November 26, 2004 2:03 PMIf we are going to start requiring warning labels for anything that indirectly causes death, then every Leftist publication should have to include "Warning: Implemention of these politics have resulted in the support of tyrants and their killing of over 100 million people in the 20th Century."
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at November 26, 2004 2:48 PMNice one.
Posted by: carter at November 26, 2004 7:43 PM"Hi, I'm Satan. Whether I'm cruising through the streets of Pandemonium, roughing it cross-country near the river Styx, or driving up the steep slopes of the piles of howling souls twisting in torment forever, my SUV takes me where I want to go... even if it snows! Why don't you take a ride in my little run-around? The 2005 Hell-Rover... Built tough. Damned tough."
Posted by: Just John at November 26, 2004 8:06 PM