Dan Lewis on Greenpeace and SUVs

By Alex Singleton | 21 May 2005

The excellent Dan Lewis has started writing on the CNE Environment Blog. This is one of his first pieces:

As if manufacturing wasn't hard enough in the UK, last Tuesday, Greenpeace activists managed to shut down the assembly line of Range Rover cars by handcuffing themselves to unfinished vehicles and cordoning off the production line with police-style "crime scene" tape. But what are the crimes they allege?

That Range Rovers are gas-guzzling 4 x 4s, wreck the climate and ruin the urban environment. Cynics might argue that Greenpeace simply understands that it's much easier to attract funding if enough people are scared. After all, in 2003 they had a budget income of $163 million. Environmental optimists like myself disagree. You can't ignore the rise of the fuel-efficient hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius, the billions going into hydrogen vehicle research by the major manufacturers and the improving performance of electric cars - all while the price of oil is going up and SUVs are becoming less economic.

Markets can and do deliver positive environmental outcomes.

As for rising urban congestion, here again, markets are the solution. Road pricing based on supply and demand would make an enormous difference. Until governments embrace such opportunities, road networks will continue to be sub-optimally used. Overburdened and over polluting in cities, and under-utilized in rural areas.

Damaging private business for publicity purposes is at best immature and at worst, detrimental to the whole environmental movement. It's time Greenpeace grew up.