In reply to:


We are not short of oil currently, nor will we be in the near future



Well you might think that way, but I don't think your government, or other governments around the world think that way now.

In reply to:



The gas an SUV buyer comes out of his own pocket.



True, but as has been pointed out earlier - the true cost of allowing you [and your fellow SUV drivers] to burn that fuel inefficiently and as a consequence polluting the entire planet for your personal gratification is something we all have to bear.

Personally, I'd much rather that I don't have to bear those costs from your or any other SUV drivers activities - but I know full well that we all will, whether directly or indirectly, whether we want to or not.

We will all pay directly as our insurance premiums rise to cover the cost of damage caused to property from increased extreme natural events like more frequent hurricanes, tornados, snow storms etc around the planet due in part to global warming from burning fossil fuels.

This is in the same way that everyone around around the world will ultimately end up paying for the costs of 9/11 through increased insurance premiums on everything thats insured as insurance companies claw back the money they had to spend for 9/11 payouts, or through reduced cover for the same premium.

We will also pay long term as parts the planet become uninhabitable either due to sea levels rising by up to 5 metres over the next 100 years (as the Antarctic ice sheet melts into the sea and the oceans expand as they warm up) or due to permanent climate change rendering currently habitable zones on the planet, uninhabitable, requiring more people to be fitted into smaller areas, or through more intangible things, like the loss of biodiversity etc.

Eventually these activities are all hastening our own demise as individuals and as a species.

We have to all start somewhere, and getting most SUVs replaced with more efficient vehicles would be a good start, and short of preventing the 1.2 billion people in China from developing as an industrialised nation, it would be one of the biggest positive steps for the entire planet anyone can do,
and all it needs is 12.5 million people to not buy a current inefficient SUV next year, and the years after that until Detroit wises up and make fuel efficient models that pollute no more than the regular "big cars" do now.