Just witnessed yet another one of those scenes that makes me shake my head and wonder about how people can actually walk around.
A coworker was just now set off by a discussion of cigarette smoking and began complaining about all those evil SUVs spewing emissions all over her pretty clean globe. THAT'S who's bad in this whole thing, you know. Second hand smoke!? BAH! Everyone knows that SUVs put out enough emissions to equal THREE cars! It's a FACT!
On and on she went, her ox of smoking having been gored (so to speak), so she felt it necessary to lash out at something or someone else to excuse herself. And do so in the most inflammatory (so to speak) way possible, practically daring anyone to disagree with her. You know, because she's one of those progressive types who are so open-minded and tolerant and all.
Well, I learned a long time ago never to wrestle with a pig--you get dirty and the pig enjoys it. So let me just offer you good folks the benefit of actual information, rather than churning bile.
Vehicle emissions for all new cars, light duty trucks, minivans, and yes, SUVs, sold in the US since 2004 must meet all the same "Tier II" standard.
Some light trucks met auto standards even before this went into effect, although I don't know which ones or by how much. I'm not sure how to come to a best guess for just how much they diverged, but this EPA report from 2000 (.pdf) shows the total average emissions for cars and trucks (including, again, minivans, pickups, and SUVs) in the entire US fleet, and as best as I can tell, the average all cars were putting out amounted to 440.95 grams of pollutants/mile, and light trucks were 555.12 grams/mile, which my calculator says means that cars emitted about 20% less pollutants by weight per mile as did trucks.
Now I know there's a lot of apples v. orange comparisons that you could do, but it still doesn't look like even a stinky old Pre-Tier II truck was as dirty as three cars. And when you consider that most late-model trucks only put out a miniscule amount of pollutants compared to, say, my non-evil, socially-responsible '86 Volvo, it's really comes down to something that says it's all more about mere appearances (mixed in with some sort of odd class envy) than it is about actual facts.
Not like it really matters to people who've already made up their minds. Loudly.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at March 13, 2007 04:09 PMGotta love the attempt at misdirection. Smoking is a vile habit, harmful not only to the smoker, but the people around them.
I've never smoked a day in my life, but thanks to exposure to secondhand smoke offered by my chain-smoking family, I'm the one who ended up with lung issues.
Posted by: diane at March 14, 2007 07:36 AMFacts? Who cares about facts?
I WANT UNINFORMED OPINIONS, MAN, NOT FACTS!
Anyone can cite facts, but it takes a real man to stand up for himself, no matter how wrong he is.
Posted by: skinnydan at March 14, 2007 08:13 AMDiane, you'll be happy to know that my coworker says that when we've raised a whole generation of kids who have never been around smokers and they STILL get asthma and lung cancer and every other thing, then we'll find out who the true culprits are--SUVs. And no, I'm not making this up--that is almost exactly what she said.
And Skinnydan, in your case I will make an exception and say one shouldn't wrestle a goat--same reasons, except it isn't unclean. In the Law sense, that is.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 14, 2007 09:13 AM