Radical environmentalists launch campaign to deflate SUV tires
A radical self-described "activist hub" is calling for people to go around and deflate the tires on American SUVs to raise awareness about climate change.
Calling SUVs "the 2nd-largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions since 2010," the group, Adbusters, gave instructions on how climate activists can deflate SUV tires as a means of "non-violent" protest to "convey the seriousness of this crisis in tangible ways."
"This is a gentle escalation of methods to drive the urgency of this climate crisis home and engender a systemic aversion to SUVs," the group tweeted last week.
"So here's what we do: Wedge gravel in the tire valves, leaflet the SUV to let them know the tires are flat and why it was done, and walk away.
"It's that simple. If we organize, we can hit enough SUVs in particular neighborhoods to spark reporting and spread the metameme," Adbusters said.
So here's what we do: Wedge gravel in the tire valves, leaflet the SUV to let them know the tires are flat and why it was done, and walk away.\n\nIt's that simple. If we organize, we can hit enough SUVs in particular neighborhoods to spark reporting and spread the metameme.— Adbusters (@Adbusters) 1649267398
The group called on activists to organize on non-traceable apps and go neighborhood-by-neighborhood, deflating tires and attaching leaflets to each SUV that explain why the car was vandalized.
A copy of the suggested leaflet reads in part: "SUVs are disproportionately fueling the climate crisis ... and they're totally [unnecessary.] The climate crisis is spiraling out of control, making drastic action necessary. So we deflated your tires."
Here's a leaflet you can put on SUV windshields when you deflate their tires to convey the message.pic.twitter.com/gn6sO9KYoG— Adbusters (@Adbusters) 1649353522
"Targeting SUVs is good way to hit the automotive industry where it hurts. SUV sales are playing a massive role in the expansion of the auto industry, both as a percentage of global market share and in total numbers," the group said.
If an SUV owner is unaware their vehicle was targeted, it could be dangerous. Driving on a flat tire reduces the vehicle's handling and can cause structural damage to the wheel, brakes, alignment, and potentially other car components including the suspension and steering system, according to auto care company Firestone.
Activists were advised to target "wealthy areas" so that SUVs belonging to working people would be spared. Vehicles with disabled stickers or hangers were also not to be targeted.
Adbusters hopes this campaign will attract media attention for its cause. The group claimed that similar campaigns in Sweden and the U.K. achieved success, citing the illegal activities of another climate alarmist group called the Tyre Extinguishers.
The BBC reported Monday that dozens of SUV vehicles parked in an upmarket area of Edinburgh, Scotland had their tires deflated by vandals. Leaflets left on some of the vehicles branded them "polluting death machines" and were signed by "The Tyre Extinguishers."
The Tyre Extinguishers website declares that the group's goal is "to make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4x4 in the world’s urban areas." To justify their actions, the activists claim self-defense against "climate change, air pollution and unsafe drivers."
Authorities said more than 100 vehicles were targeted, according to BBC.
EU carbon pricing plan has special exemption yachts, upsetting environmentalists
A carbon emissions reduction plan proposed by the European Commission last summer appears to have a special carve-out for the ultra-wealthy.
In July 2021, the European Commission proposed expanding its Emissions Trading System to create a carbon pricing scheme that would cover CO2 emissions from ships. The plan was one of several proposals announced for the EU's "fit for 55" initiative, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among member states by at least 55% by 2030, with the lofty goal of reaching zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But a new study from Transport & Environment, an influential European environmental group, finds that the EU proposal exempts over 25 million tons of CO2 from its carbon price for shipping. The group says that "arbitrary exemptions" of these certain classes of ships will result in CO2 emissions equivalent to the yearly volume of emissions produced by the whole of Denmark.
The regulations only apply to ships above 5,000 GT (gross tonnage) and among the offshore vehicles exempted are fishing vessels and yachts.
BREAKING: Loopholes in the EU's proposed carbon pricing for shipping would mean that some 25 million tonnes of CO2 are exempt.\n\nThis would leave roughly 20% of shipping emissions unregulated, including high emitting vessels servicing offshore oil and gas, as well as yachts.— Transport & Environment (@Transport & Environment) 1642059420
That's right — the pleasure boats of Europe's wealthy elite won't have to comply with the emissions standards set up by the European Commission's bureaucrats, who claim these emission standards are needed to save the planet from a climate catastrophe.
Environmentalists are upset, of course, because they say loopholes in the standards will exempt just over half of Europe's ships, event though they account for nearly 20% of the EU's shipping emissions.
“It’s good that the EU is finally trying to address shipping’s appalling climate impact. But its proposal based on arbitrary loopholes lets too many heavily polluting vessels off the hook," Jacob Armstrong, a sustainable shipping officer at T&E, said. "The EU must rethink its shipping laws to ensure that millions of tonnes of CO2 don’t go unregulated.”
To fix close these loopholes, T&E proposes to create a system that is based on the "emissions threshold" of certain ships, rather than on their size. The group claims this would allow the carbon pricing scheme to cover more emissions without adding an administrative burden to the industry.
But such a pricing scheme could mean that the super rich could be penalized for owning super yachts. And that would, of course, mean billionaires who fly around the world in private jets and lecture the rest of us about our carbon footprints would have to practice what they preach.
(H/T: ZeroHedge)
Report: Emails show how Biden will implement Green New Deal agenda through 'backdoor'
Newly reported emails appear to show how state Democratic attorneys general are conspiring with far-left climate activists on a plan to implement the Green New Deal through the "backdoor."
President Joe Biden has called for a "clean energy revolution," proposing $2 trillion in federal spending over four years on clean energy initiatives, infrastructure projects, and new climate regulations. Among his first actions in office were several executive actions implementing aspects of the Green New Deal — a progressive legislative agenda designed to fundamentally transform the U.S. economy to meet far-left climate standards.
The more radical elements of the Green New Deal, including reducing CO2 emissions by regulating the greenhouse gas (which every person on this planet exhales as they breathe) as a "pollutant," do not have enough support in Congress to become law. But Democrats and climate activists have strategized on how to use the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency to circumvent Congress and implement their agenda through regulation.
Emails obtained by Chris Horner at Energy Policy Advocates and reported by the Wall Street Journal show how in 2019 Democratic state attorneys general consulted a Biden administration bureaucrat on strategies to regulate CO2 through the "backdoor" without Congressional approval.
Here's the background:
The Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the Clean Air Act's general definition of "pollutant" covers greenhouse gases.
The Obama administration interpreted that ruling to mean the EPA could regulate certain greenhouse gasses, listing six such gasses — nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, ozone, and particulate matter — as "criteria pollutants" that directly harm human health and can be regulated by National Air Ambient Quality Standards.
Climate activists want a seventh greenhouse gas, CO2, to be regulated as a "criteria pollutant," but the difference between CO2 and the other gasses is CO2 doesn't directly harm human health. It doesn't cause disease, and standards regulating CO2 emission are difficult to implement because those emissions are hard to measure locally.
The Obama administration concluded it was not "advisable" to regulate CO2 as a "criteria pollutant" and the idea was abandoned.
But climate lobbyists did not give up.
The 'Backdoor' Plan
The Wall Street Journal reported that former Obama EPA official Joe Goffman is now in charge of the Biden administration's greenhouse gas regulations as principal deputy assistant administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation.
In 2019, while Goffman had a job at Harvard Law School, Democratic state attorneys general contacted him for consultation on a new plan to regulate CO2. He referred them to "former EPA officials and environmental attorneys" who then developed a plan that could ultimately allow the EPA to force states to "outlaw natural gas-powered appliances, gas stations and internal combustion engines to meet stricter ozone standards."
From the Wall Street Journal:
Consultants referred by Mr. Goffman told the AGs that regulating CO2 as a criteria pollutant wouldn't fly. But they proposed using ozone NAAQS as what one called a"backdoor." Fossil fuel combustion, motor vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions contribute to ozone. So the EPA could make states reduce CO2 emissions by tightening ozone standards. States might have to outlaw natural gas-powered appliances, gas stations and internal combustion engines to meet stricter ozone standards.
Any climate legislation Congress enacts will no doubt contain a potpourri of green energy subsidies, but Democrats won't be able to use budget reconciliation to banish fossil fuels. As former EPA official John Bachmann wrote in an email to New York's Office of Attorney General, "New legislation requiring specific actions would be much better than NAAQS, and yet I'm mindful of the obvious problem of how to get such legislation even with a new administration." Other climate consultants agreed.
With Goffman installed at the EPA, the Biden administration is poised to increase regulations on emissions that increase ozone, including CO2 emissions, bypassing Congress to implement this climate agenda.
Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reports that "sixteen Democratic AGs on Jan. 19—a day before Mr.Biden's inauguration—challenged the EPA's current ozone NAAQS. Their one paragraph lawsuit says the standards are 'unlawful, arbitrary and capricious and therefore must be vacated.'"
A successful lawsuit to overturn current EPA ozone regulations would empower the Biden administration to issue new ozone rules that are de facto CO2 regulations.
Under Biden, the Green New Deal agenda will march on with or without Congress.
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