©Macmillan Publishers Ltd
Taken from the News section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Axles of evil
Arnold Schwarzenegger has
five sports utility vehicles
(SUVs). Mike Tyson has four.
30% of the cars sold in the
USA are now SUVs. But now
environmentalists are going to
war against the SUV.
It's Tuesday night on the
Upper West Side in New York
and environmentalist Adam
Weinstock has a lot of work to
do. We turn the corner on
68th and Lexington and we
see a whole street full of
sports utility vehicles. SUVs
are half car, half truck and
they have names like
Navigators, Excursions,
Expeditions and Pathfinders -
names that give us a picture
of nature and outdoor life. But
they are parked in the rich
centre of Manhattan.
Weinstock puts a fake parking
ticket on them. "Open your
eyes,” it says. “Take a few
deep breaths, and be honest
with yourself… Why do you
need such a huge car? This is
not a war zone."
SUVs, and their military
version, the Hummer, are
very popular and they are
making a lot of money for the
US car industry. But they also
use a lot of petrol. This is why
environmentalists hate SUVs.
In Pennsylvania protesters
set SUVs on fire; in
Washington state they
smashed their windscreens;
in Massachusetts they
painted the words "No Blood
for Oil" on them.
Ron DeFore, the
communications director of
SUV Owners of America
(SUVOA), says he is tired of
environmentalists criticising
Americans for their choice of
vehicle. He thinks their
arguments about the
environment and safety are
wrong. His message to them
is: "Get on with your life and
stop complaining."
On the SUVOA website you
can read the words: "Is this a
Great Country or What? Yes
it is." Why? "Because we
have the freedom to buy what
cars we want and we must
not lose that freedom
because some people don’t
like SUVs.” During the war in
Iraq, Hummer drivers were
proud of their vehicles. "When
I turn on the TV, I see
Humvees everywhere, and
I'm proud," Sam Bernstein
told the New York Times.
“American soldiers in Iraq are
not driving Audis!”
The environmentalists say
that SUV drivers do not care
about the environment. Once
again, it is a question of oil.
Statistics show that four-
wheel-drive SUVs use a
gallon of petrol every 17.3
miles and some larger models
need a gallon every 12 miles.
Hummers use even more
petrol. In comparison, the
average petrol-fuelled saloon
car does 30 miles to the
gallon. Each person in the
USA consumes about 4.5
times more energy than
people in other countries of
the world. "You could say that
the American way is to do
what you want when you
want," says Weinstock. "But
there's another American
way where people work
together for the good of
everyone and we try to be an
example for the rest of the
world."
But the protests have not
been very successful. Sales
of SUVs are still growing
faster than any other type of
car. One of the reasons is
that while the amount of
petrol used by SUVs has a
big effect on the environment,
the cost of this petrol has a
very small effect on people’s
pockets. Gasoline (petrol) in
America costs just $1.67 a
gallon (3.8 litres), so people
would save only $135 a year
by buying a car that used less
petrol than the SUV.
