Sidebar 1 Green
Car Mean Car: The 12 greenest and meanest cars of the
year 2000
Sidebar 2 Mother
Earth's Day: Saturday,
April 22, the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, will be an
all-day affair aimed at not only calling attention to the
problems of global warming but also uniting east and west
Portland.
"I want to drive a tank," Barbara Trachtenburg says without
shame. "I want my kids to learn to drive in a tank."
Petite and elegant in weekend sportswear, she is dwarfed
by her forest green Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, which her
husband bought for her last year. She is part of the weekend
fleet of sport-utility vehicles outside Nordstrom at Washington
Square.
"We're the ones that everyone hates," she says wryly. "The
moms hauling around all their kids and all their stuff in
these massive gas guzzlers."
Trachtenburg, mid-40s, knows that despite the tint of her
"tank," she's not coming across as the greenest gal in the
suburbs; she kiddingly calls her Jeep obscene as she admits
it gets about 13 miles per gallon. And yet she loves it.
It's a $35,000, top-of-the-line Grand Cherokee, with leather,
electrically warmed seats, tinted windows, a CD player and
gold-trimmed hubcaps.
She lives on Palatine Hill, near Lewis & Clark College,
and the four-wheel drive helps zip her up the incline when
the weather is nasty. She has two sons, ages 18 and 14,
and says she needs as much room as she can get. While an
all-wheel-drive Subaru Legacy might do the job, Trachtenburg
says, "I wouldn't be caught dead driving a station wagon."
Besides, Trachtenburg says, she and her husband do more
good than harm. They are generous local philanthropists.
They donate their time to the Parry Center for Children
and Doernbecher Hospital. She tries to limit the aerosol
sprays used in her home and says her family recycles everything.
"I'm not about to feel guilty about the car I drive," she
says.
April 22 is Earth Day 2000. It has been 30 years since
the first organized grassroots protests called attention
to the environmental woes of the day. That same year, 1970,
the Environmental Protection Agency was established, and
the Clean Air Act was signed. Now, three decades later,
Earth Day has become as codified in the calendar as Easter.
This year's theme is clean power, calling attention to the
impact of oil, coal and nuclear power on the environment
and human health. This Saturday, Pioneer Courthouse Square
will be converted into a carnival intended to entice, cajole
and guilt Portlanders into paying attention to how they
contribute to climate change. There will be a fun run, a
kids parade and an all-day party. Downtown will be filled
with eco-friendly families playing hippie for a day.
Many of them will arrive in their sport-utility vehicles.
SUVs are everywhere. They are parked on street corners,
blocking the views of pedestrians and smaller cars, bearing
down on freeway drivers, gliding into the Pearl District
for First Thursday and filling the parking lots at Intel.
Yet regular driving of a sports-utility vehicle is possibly
the single largest crime an individual can commit against
the environment.
"The only thing worse you could do, I suppose, is set fire
to Smokey the Bear," says John Bradley, research analyst
at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
SUVs are heavier, taller, more unwieldy and, by regulation,
allowed to pollute more than a car. An average SUV emits
about 40 percent more carbon dioxide, the main cause of
global warming, than a car. Additionally, the feds continue
to classify the big rigs as trucks rather than automobiles,
so SUVs are exempted from the fleet mile-per-gallon averages
dictated by the Transportation Department for cars. In other
words, even though most SUVs are driven like cars, not working
vehicles, they don't have to meet the same rules. The EPA
points to SUVs as the cause of this country's rapidly increasing
trend away from fuel efficiency. Last year, America's average
fuel economy, 23.8 miles per gallon, was at the lowest rate
it has been since 1980.
Bradley's organization has developed a rating system for
automobiles that measures emissions, gas mileage, and the
health and environmental costs of each vehicle. Under the
ACEEE ratings, Trachtenburg's rig earns an 11, one of the
worst ratings in its class. The societal costs are calculated
at $310 per year. A Subaru Legacy, in comparison, rates
a 22 and has a societal cost of $200.
If that isn't enough, consider this: Driving an SUV is
like waving around a loaded handgun with the safety off.
In a collision with a normal-sized car, an SUV is deadly.
The other guy is three times as likely to die, according
to Dr. Hans Joksch, a safety researcher at the University
of Michigan. "Anybody who is driving a sports-utility vehicle
is essentially increasing the risk they will kill someone
else," he says. "She simply transfers the risk from herself
to the other vehicle so she is safer."
In fact, Joksch says, new studies show that because of
their vehicles' poor handling and a greater tendency to
tip over, SUV drivers may be just as likely to be injured
in their vehicle as the driver of a Honda Accord.
For these reasons and others, environmentalists and academics
have for years been decrying SUVs as crimes against nature
and humanity.
Yet SUV sales have tripled in the last decade, hitting
the 3 million mark in 1999. According to auto-industry analysts
J.D. Power and Associates, SUV sales increased by double
digits throughout the 1990s. Today, nearly one out of every
five new cars sold is an SUV. While the trend is showing
some signs of slowing, auto manufacturers are expanding
their product line to 70 models of SUVs available by the
end of 2004, up from 42 in 1999. At Syd Dorn Chevrolet in
Portland, sales manager Howard Albin says he can't keep
Suburbans on the lot.
Owning an SUV is the biggest ethical quandary of Lauren
Mills' life. Her 1998 Land Rover is beautiful--luminescent
green with rugged yet classic styling--perfect for a Kenyan
safari. Mills, however, drove her SUV to the Washington
Square Mall on a recent Saturday morning and brought along
a load of guilt.
"I know better than this," she says. Wearing natural-fiber
pants, 7-year-old Mephisto sandals and a Princeton sweatshirt,
Mills has protested in peace marches, is a KBOO supporter
and has a number of relatives who work for the Environmental
Protection Agency. She is acutely aware that she's driving
a gas guzzler. "I used to be so non-materialistic, but now...well,
now we can afford a luxury car." It is nearly a lament.
It isn't that Mills and others have completely sold out.
In fact, her generation, who as 20-year-olds danced naked
for Gaia at the first Earth Day and cut their civics incisors
learning about pollution, global warming and the evils of
conspicuous consumption, have changed the world on one front:
Green is marketing gold. Today, many of them worship at
the altar of the recycling bin and buy pesticide-free vegetables,
biodegradable soap and politically correct coffee beans.
But the green values seem to disappear when it comes to
their driving machines.
Mills laughs and says her car isn't as bad as the monsters
some of her peers are driving. "My girlfriend has one that
takes up two parking spaces," she says.
Mills has many good reasons for driving her Land Rover.
The 43-year-old former graphic designer is the mother of
a toddler, and safety is a primary concern. Also, she and
her husband, an Intel engineer, often pull a pop-up trailer
into the woods.
She, like Trachtenburg, has done the mental math that makes
it OK to drive an SUV. She says she and her family often
take MAX when they go into Portland on the weekends and
that her donations to environmental groups have increased
as she's gotten more financially secure. But it's not blood
money, Mills insists: "We've always donated to good causes."
Still, the environmental and safety implications of her
car gnaw at her, so much so that she's thinking of getting
rid of the thing.
Although there is no official SUV-haters club, no Mothers
Against Jeeps, no bumper stickers or public service announcements
with the somber faces of second-tier celebrities, critics
are legion.
"This is supposed to be a time of environmental awareness,"
says Barbara Tetenbaum, chairwoman of the book-arts department
at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. She and her friends
are increasingly angry to find herself surrounded by visible
symbols of her peers' disregard for the environment, she
says. She has her own names for the Ford E-series of SUVs--instead
of Explorer and Excursion, she calls them Eco-terrorist
and Ebola. Although she's never slashed any tires or keyed
any paint jobs, she admits such dark thoughts have crossed
her mind. It infuriates her that SUV drivers are ignoring
the obvious: "We've had all these years of legislation to
reclaim our air quality and water quality, and this generation
of people--which are my generation and should know better--are
driving these vehicles. It's painfully ironic and seems
unfair on a profound level."
Tetenbaum concedes that part of her anger is based on a
bit of anti-elitism.
"I worry there is too large a division between wealthy
and poor in this country. These rich people now drive these
things that can kill the poor people," she says. "It used
to be the wealthy were people you didn't see. They ate in
restaurants you didn't go to. Now, though, they're in this
big thing that's like a shark bearing down on you."
"I think the SUVs are obscene," says Joan Maiers, a writing
instructor at Marylhurst College. She calls SUVs mobile
castles and says they should be required to follow the same
rules of the road as semi-trucks.
"They epitomize the bigger-is-better notions in our society,"
Maiers says. "I don't want to impugn the soccer moms, but
there is a certain stereotype of upper-middle-class females
who feel like princesses now that they have these vehicles."
Though the environmental impacts of SUVs are real--and
largely ignored by their owners--the hatred of them is also
a cultural phenomenon that verges on the irrational, says
Ross Williams of Portland's Center for Responsible Transportation:
"They can afford to buy the SUV. You can't. They can afford
to put gas in the thing. You can't. They are polluting your
environment. They don't care. And if you get in a wreck
with them, you lose."
Although anyone who drives an SUV for a daily-commute car
is environmental public enemy number one, Williams says,
someone who owns a Suburban only for weekend getaways but
takes public transportation to work scores more green points
than someone with a compact car who lives 25 miles away
from the office and drives every day.
"No one slams those people who buy a house in Wilsonville
and expect to be able to drive to work," he says. "That
affects global warming much more than occasional SUV driving."
Ask most people--especially women--why they're driving
a sport-utility vehicle and they'll cite safety for themselves
and their family. While that may be part of the reason,
it's not the entire story.
"The top reason people buy SUVs," says Matt Darnell of
J.D. Power and Associates, "is because of image. It gives
them an assertive image. Survey after survey tells us this."
The primary buyers of SUVs, he says, are baby boomers, 35-45
years old. Not only that, he says, but the demographic is
excessively loyal to SUVs. They may buy a Ford Explorer
while the kids are home, he says, but once the nest is empty
they'll trade it in--not for a smaller car, but for a luxury
SUV, something like a Lincoln Navigator. Once you've driven
something that big and powerful, you don't go back. More
than functionality, more than safety, the reason people
own SUVs is that they want to look good.
"People don't want to feel old and stodgy," says Andrew
Clark, a salesman at Ron Tonkin Toyota on Northeast 122nd
Avenue. "They don't want to admit that they have kids, that
they're married. They want to drive something fun." There
is an SUV for everyone, says Clark. He puts young hipsters
in the Toyota RAV4, thirtysomething professionals in Toyota
4Runners, and the established affluent into Land Cruisers.
In the ultimate irony, sport-utility vehicles also provide
a veneer of environmentalism. Suburban office workers who
never take their Monteros any further into the woods than
the Troutdale outlet center can at least look like they're
headed for the great outdoors. Madison Avenue has been remarkably
effective at marketing SUVs as the key to the wilderness.
Ads for everything from Ford Explorers to Jeep Grand Cherokees
show the rigs alone in the woods or in the desert, turning
each SUV driver into John Muir seeing Yosemite for the first
time.
Not only that, but in marketing to women, advertisers promote
size, strength, independence and power.
In one SUV ad, a macho rig blazes through the wilderness,
jumping hill and forging dale. At the end of the scene,
out jumps a beautiful woman, smiling smugly at her freedom.
In a sepia-toned commercial for Subaru's Forester, women
at a country gas station are attracted by a buff, shirtless
man soaping down the SUV. They can't take their eyes off
him, it seems. But when he finishes, they brush him away
and continue caressing the Subaru with their eyes.
"Those people believe that they had purchased access to
a perceived lifestyle," Bradley says. "They believe those
ads even if they live in downtown Chicago."
Laurie Wimmer has the kind of progressive credentials that
would impress Ralph Nader. Yet the Oregon Education Association
lobbyist drives a 1996 Ford Explorer and calls herself a
walking cliché. "I have a cell phone, I drink lattes,
and I drive an SUV."
Wimmer got the 4WD two years ago, she says, after careful
research. She, like most female SUV owners, wanted safety
for herself and her two children. She's been in a bad accident,
and her brother was killed on a motorcycle. She says she
went to the Consumer Reports Web site, punched in
her criteria for an ideal vehicle and was startled to see
a Ford Explorer pop up on the screen. This is a woman, after
all, who is so green she used cloth diapers rather than
disposable even when backpacking with small children. But
after getting used to the idea of the Explorer, she bought
one. She rejects the notion that she is single-handedly
responsible for global warming.
"I am gentle on the earth in every other respect," she
says. "I've never used a pesticide in my life. I've gone
to the Eugene Country Fair every year. It's not a fair rap
to plug me into one box. This is an inconsistency for me,
but it's because I had competing priorities and they won
out."
Like most people, Wimmer has done the moral calculations
necessary for modern life. Sport-utility vehicles are certainly
not the only place where our values clash with practicality
and lose.
Of course, we all make the little tradeoffs: plop the kids
down in front of the television instead of engaging them
in creative, educational activities; buy fast food even
though we know the burger is a heart-attack time bomb; drive
to work instead of taking the bus when it's raining.
What's the math with SUVs? Does five years of recycling
equal one year of guilt-free Expedition driving? Will one
organic garden wipe the slate clean? Follow that logic and,
for a big enough donation to Greenpeace, you can write a
toxic waste dump off your conscience.
It's just that SUVs are so damn big.
Green
Car Mean Car
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient
Economy has rated the
12 greenest and meanest cars of the year 2000 fleet. (Double
listings
are the same vehicle with different names.)
GOOD
CAR
THE 12 GREENEST VEHICLES OF 2000
* GM EV1 (Electric)
* NISSAN ALTRA (Electric)
* HONDA CIVIC GX (Electric)
* HONDA INSIGHT
* TOYOTA RAV4 (Electric)
* TOYOTA CAMRY CNG (Compressed Natural Gas)
* FORD RANGER (Electric)
* CHEVROLET METRO/ SUZUKI SWIFT
* TOYOTA ECHO
* NISSAN SENTRA CA
* MITSUBISHI MIRAGE
* HONDA CIVIC HX
BAD
CAR
THE 12 MEANEST VEHICLES FOR THE
ENVIRONMENT
IN 2000
* CHEVROLET SUBURBAN
* DODGE RAM 2500
* FERRARI 550 MARANELLO
* CHEVROLET SILVERADO/ GMC SIERRA
* FORD EXCURSION
* DODGE B2500 VAN/WAGON
* CHEVROLET K2500 PICKUP
* CADILLAC ESCALADE
* CHEVROLET TAHOE/ GMC YUKON
* TOYOTA LAND CRUISER/ LEXUS LX 470
* FERRARI 456M
* RANGE ROVER
SOURCE: AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR
AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT ECONOMY, HTTP://ACEEE.ORG
Mother Earth's Day
Saturday, April 22, the 30th anniversary of Earth Day,
will be an all-day affair aimed at not only calling attention
to the problems of global warming but also uniting east
and west Portland. Here's a calendar of some of the top
events.
KICK-OFF AT THE ROSE QUARTER
* The Race to Stop Global Warming--an 8k run/walk.
The lead runners are Alberto Salazar, Portland City Commissioner
Charlie Hales
and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer. Place your bets now.
Starts at 7:30 am
* Children's fun crawl/toddle/run.
Starts at 9:30 am
* Family environmental fair with all the usual suspects--face
painting, music and food. Also a children's theater production
and storytelling in a "salmon tent."
9 am-2 pm
For more information about the Rose Quarter activities,
contact Matthew Follett, Green House Network's campaign
director, at 639-0600; e-mail at help@greenhousenet.org.
LET'S HOLD HANDS!
Mark Lakeman of City Repair Project made a name for himself
in Portland by creating public spaces, such as Southeast
Portland's Share-It Square. For Earth Day, he is again linking
the east and west sides with "Hands Around Portland." Lakeman
has drawn a route through the city for people to stand along
and hold hands in a sign of unity. The civic bonding begins
at 11:30 am and will extend through
16 neighborhoods. For more information go to
www.city
repair.org/hands.html
or call 299-1264.
LOOK MA, IT'S A DINOSAUR!
At 1 pm, the second-annual "Procession of the Species"
will start in Northeast Portland and end up downtown. Described
by organizers as an artistic celebration of the natural
world, created by the community for the community, using
art, music and dance to give the natural world a greater
presence in our streets. Translation: a very fun, very hip
parade.
For more information, check out
www.earthandspirit.org/
THE PARTY STARTS:
2 pm: While the drumming will probably already have begun
by then, this is the official kick-off time of the party
in Pioneer Square, which is scheduled to go on until 10.
Information booths about clean energy and other environmental
concerns, an open mike, music, dancing, singing and playing.
Lakeman is building massive artistic structures that will
close off the square and keep everyone cozy in Portland's
living room.
OTHER EARTH DAY EVENTS THIS WEEK:
* Wednesday, April 19: Environmental and Natural Resources
Colloquium. Howard Lyman, rancher and author of Mad Cowboy:
Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat,
discusses the dangerous and potentially deadly practices
of the cattle and dairy industries.
Lewis & Clark Law School, 10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.,
Classroom 2. Noon to 1:15 pm. For more information, call
Kris Anderson at 768-7964.
* Thursday, April 20: Cascadia Forest Revue. This is a
two-fer: an update on logging activities in the Mount Hood
National Forest, plus music by local musician John Rancher
and folk band/activist group Seize the Day.
7:30 pm at the Snake and Weasel, 1720 SE 12th Ave. Donations:
$3-$20.
* Friday, April 21: Many Christian churches are integrating
responsible stewardship for God's Green Earth into their
doctrine. Check out the Earth Day Eve service invocations
at First Unitarian Salmon Street Sanctuary.
For more information, contact Danielle Abbott at 227-2807.
OUT OF TOWN:
"One Less Dumpster Full" Earth Day Activities & Exhibit:
Hands-on art projects for the kids from reclaimed materials
as well as an exhibition by the Post Consumer Artists Collective.
Information on how to become an eco-shopper. Information
on household hazardous wastes, compost, recycling, the works.
Bring your old running shoes: Nike is collecting them for
recycling.
11 am-2 pm Saturday, April 22. Water Resources Education
Center, 4600 SE Columbia Way, Vancouver, Wash. For more
information call (360) 696-8059 or visit www.ci.vancouver.wa.us/watercenter.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 19,
2000
|
