32 SUVs disabled across Oxford

Up to 32 SUV owners awoke this morning to discover that their destructive vehicles had been disabled.

Using the 'mung bean trick', whereby a mung bean is inserted into the valve of a tyre before the cap is screwed back on, tyres were let down in Marston, Headington, and the highly affluent area of Summertown. Messages were left under windscreen wipers warning the owners not to attempt to drive their 4x4s, and explaining why it was felt that direct action had to be taken to resist their assault on this planet.
They were informed that more than a quarter of the UK's CO2 generation is attributable to the transport sector, and that many Sports Utility Vehicles emit up to 300% more greenhouse gases than the average car.
They were also told that driving a car is not a 'right', and that driving an SUV is an unacceptably selfish act in the face of what may become unstoppable climate change.

This is a simple action that anyone can do, anytime or place.

Boyd's Forest Dragon

Comments

Hide the following 18 comments

GO GO GO or NO as it may seem

18.07.2008 12:06

happy pumping to all those flat tire owners, hopefully they will get rid of their Chelsea tractors, and buy a push bike for themselves and their obese kids.

Ronald

Resistance to ecological suicide is contagious

18.07.2008 12:17

This has been populating over recent years and is spreading town by town, great to hear of your action.

Indians of the Concrete Jungle

4x4 co2

18.07.2008 12:22

i think you have been let astray by government figure, japenese imports of 4x4 and gas guzzlers in fact produce less emissions than a normal car, fact i on jap imports of 4x4 the fumes go through twice not once than a normal british car, fact 2 ,tanks do 6 milesto the gallon,what do planes do, i think this sort of behavoir is a direct action of u being brainwashed, by governments agenda, get your facts straight and go and weild a tank track together than target 4x4, as it not occured that if we gwt rid of all the tanks and planes this might do some good, instead of hitting the every day folk, hit the capatilist system of war and profits, A transit van does the same co2 emmissions as a 4x4 but they carry a cargo of goods for the system , i drive a 4x4 and need it for my nomadic lifestyle i lead, but can not afford the high fuel costs, HIT VICKERS AND ALL CAPATILIST SYSTEMS FIRST, NOTDOING THE GOVERNMENTS WORK FOR THEM WISE UP,

Davey

i forgot

18.07.2008 12:29

My familys carbon footprint is very good, we look at what goes in to landfill site, and what we buy vegtables with no plastic on it, lights switched of, at least we no we can sleep instead of doing this behavoir, but i agree that a lot of 4x4 are being used as a brain enlargement tool, and should not be, i see this on the school runs, leafliting would be a bette ridea outside schools making folk aware of there carbon footprint, wake them up, by doing this letting of tyres down you are in fact adding more pollution, van drives to house, fires his generator up to fix the 4 tyres, this is adding and how much fuel to do this work,? MORE CARBON CO2 FUMES.

Davey

Re: Davey

18.07.2008 14:02

Cars bad enough for the environment, full stop. We should use them as little as possible, only when it is necessary, and they should definitely be shared; not just between families either.

Why? There aren't enough resources for a car per person, or even between two. With the speed of capitalism in other countries surely it should be obvious that our dependency on motorised vehicles is killing our planet, not just by its hazardous production?

Do it really need to discuss why a vehicle that produces far more CO2 is suicidal for our planet/environment? Surely it should be blatantly obvious.

ECO-DEFENSE = SELF-DEFENSE

sensible eco-vegan

Way to score an own goal...

18.07.2008 14:15

So the CRIMINAL eco-mentalists decided to make a protest about
pollution by flattening car tyres? What a braindead thing to
do. So not only are there now going to be up to 128 tyres which will
needlessly need to be replaced and added to the scrap tyre mountain,
there's all the needless pollution caused from recovering and
transporting these vehicles.

Way to score an own goal, dumbasses.

Conor Turton
mail e-mail: conor_turton@hotmail.com

horses

18.07.2008 15:33

spot on with the above aticles, bloody idiots , far better getting leaflets out ,to everyone concerned,lets get on our horses,they be complaing about methane,crap gives of next,what will they do then ,

Davey

Not only an environmental issue

18.07.2008 15:59

4x4 cars DO guzzle petrol, ask any real 4x4 driver who pays for the fuel!

It is sadly quite reflective of a lot of the drivers' attitude, powerful chunky cars regardless of cost..
Just look at the advertising of these cars and you can clearly see it is selling status and 'mastery over nature'

Not only does it cost the environment but also pedestrian and cyclists' safety.. because these cars are so chunky, even well meaning considerate drivers can end up killing people they cannot see in their wing mirrors! Drivers of these cars need to be much more aware of just what they are driving and how unnecessarily dangerous - for people not in the car! - these things are.

Little cyclist

tanks

18.07.2008 16:21

any body who buys a petrol 4x4 are of there nuts anyway, look at previous articles, lets have a look at big trucks delivering your food to asda?we need to look at this more closer, WARS TANKS ,SHIPS ,PLANES, satalites rockets, etc , list goes on, lets share our cars and go to a nature reserve, NAKED AND SAVE THE PLANET, FIG LEAF ANY ONE.

Davey

Good grief ....... are you for real.

18.07.2008 17:57

Why would ANYONE seek to destry personal property, invade personal space and cause such potential for environmental harm?

These people you have 'attacked' are presumably well off enough to have "SUV's" and thus are presumably wealthy enough to get the RAC/AA in to fix it. If it can't be fixed they'll simply replace tyres AT A HUGE COST TO THE ENVIRONMENT.

Do you REALLY think they'll read the spam on the windscreen?
Do you really think this so-called "action" will have any beneficial effect to your cause at all?

You seem to live in cloud cuckoo land if you think that you causing people some inconvenience will turn them round to your way of thinking.

Please, if you're going to take any action THINK IT THROUGH.

Attack the corporations, attack the government, but for god's sake don't attack the very people who you want to listen to you.

I think Conor has hit it on the head, you've scored a spectaculear own goal and shot yourself in the foot all at once with this type of publicity stunt.

Paul

Re: Paul

18.07.2008 18:32

Why would ANYONE seek to destry personal property, invade personal space and cause such potential for environmental harm?

Ask the Nazi Resistance why they sabotaged or even completely destroyed gas chambers, sometimes torching them causing minor environmental damage...

To save their own lives - SIMPLE!

elf

It all adds up

18.07.2008 19:50

Every time that the status of these petrol-munching vehicles is challenged, every time that car culture is shown up for the climate-trashing nonsense that it is, it all adds to an ongoing shift in public consciousness.

These kinds of actions are powerful because they highlight the importance of this issue to the public; if people are prepared to risk arrest to make this point, then it drives home the seriousness of the message in a way that few other things can. This action will have far more of an effect on the people who hear or read about it (

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/display.var.2403261.0.ecoprotesters_let_down_4x4_tyres.php) than a simple leaflet could ever do.

One Wheel Driver

Oh Dear

18.07.2008 20:26

Anyone remember "Big Car - Little Disk"

The pro 4x4ers seem to miss the point that they do not have a right to whoosh around in any internal combustion powered vehicle, they probably do not realise that those of us with a driving license, who choose to cycle, face the same penalties as if we were driving a vehicle.

These 4x4s' must be remarkably robust if a flat tire or two (or four) requires all four wheels being changed and why are they going to landfill? There are plenty of products out there made from recycled tires. It is also common for vehicle pilots to scream of their carbon neutrality, with great smugness. It is the old Roman Catholic buying indulgences re-visited, the corporations have you hood winked and you keep on paying 'em

Here, in SE London, it is a usual sight to see vehicles blocking pedestrian crossings, in front of the ASL and ignoring the lights.

Has this all been prompted by the main stream medias' outpourings over one cyclist killing a pedestrian? Big story everywhere. Seen as many the vehicle drivers who slaughter everyday? Of course cyclists do kill people from time-to-time, last one I can find was in Australia in 2001

*NB*
Tip for the stock market
Buy, buy, buy mung beans

PRoS II

Motorists are selfish

19.07.2008 09:29

I've never driven a car, I'm 33 years old and have not yet seen a reason to, why? Because I live in a city, everything is within a few miles of where I live and I carry what I need for that trip.

Motorists are selfish, they take more space than is required for them to travel causing congestion, they use more fuel than is required causing pollution and depleting a fixed and sparse resource and they complain that speed cameras are unfair while killing many more people than terrorism.

This action should target all cars, we should all be taking part.

a cyclist

Makes me laugh!

23.07.2008 10:21

"sensible eco-vegan"... mung beans ... "direct action" ...

This made my day; every single thing about it. Pure comedy - cheers!

Abdul Alhazred

stupidity

23.07.2008 10:53

This kind of action is patently ridiculous. For one thing, it is hardly going to win people over to the cause. Also it is prioritising individual acts rather than collective action.

The worse thing is the lack of consideration and the charcterising of all drivers of these vehicles. I work with people with learning difficulties and I am sure they wouldn't have appreciated the antics of middle class lifestyle greens or anarchists or whatever in stopping them from partcipating in their daily activities

But anyway, congratulations on this childish, immature approach. Next time, why not involve workers and ordinary people in your elitist campaings. Otherwise you may find the mung bean ends up where the sun don't shine!

angry worker
mail e-mail: bongihead@hotmail.co.uk

Mung bean guerillas

23.07.2008 22:21

Someone's got their finger on the pulse!

Charles Dexter Ward
mail e-mail: c_dex_ward@yahoo.co.uk

yup

23.07.2008 22:22

"I've never driven a car, I'm 33 years old and have not yet seen a reason to, why? Because I live in a city, everything is within a few miles of where I live and I carry what I need for that trip.

Motorists are selfish, they take more space than is required for them to travel causing congestion, they use more fuel than is required causing pollution and depleting a fixed and sparse resource and they complain that speed cameras are unfair while killing many more people than terrorism.

This action should target all cars, we should all be taking part.
a cyclist"

1. you have never been out of the city then?
2. whilst you don't drive, you have never been in a car?
3.you have never been in a car on a long journey?

I too am 33, and plan to learn to drive to be able to be able to travel this country and beyond, having been brought up in a single parent family on the breadline, and having worked for a pittance all my life, I now am earning the money to be able to follow my dream. God what a selfish bastard I am, please put a mung bean in my tire.

worker