Why do Americans insist on killing the planet?

Question

Apart from the odd celebrity driving a Prius (T*ssers!), everyone else drives a bl**dy great Pick-Up, SUV or Saloon - why??

Apart from anything else, American cars are all sh*t anyway - I know that Petrol is cheap in the USA, but God, it's not that cheap...I'd rather walk!!

I am constantly staggered by the waste and excess in that country - Yet, none of the Politicians want to tackle it in case it makes them unpopular.

About time someone did something about it - for everyone's sake.

Answer 1

That is their nature.

Answer 2

It's not just "Americans". It's a World-Wide Conspiracy that Tree-Huggers like You unwittingly support ! Want Proof ? See My Avatar ? It's a Photo of a Device I've constructed that safely converts Gasoline [Petrol] into Propane, 100 Parts of Air to 1 Part of Fuel, Lit on Fire to Prove it Works !This has the Potential to enable even the Largest SUV to get 50 + MPG, & Emit 10 X less Polluting Exhaust Emissions.Problem; all Vehicles in the USA from ' 96 to the present are required by the EPA-OBD II Law to run at 14.7 Parts of Air to 1 Part of Fuel.No Exceptions.Really ! Under this Insane Law,it is entirely possible to fail a Vehicle Inspection for not Emitting enough Pollution ! And Mr. Al Gore helped to make this insane Law ! I tried to Contact him at http://www.climatecrisis.net , & no Reply ! Why, Al,Why[NOT!]? I'm not the First to figure this out. Far from it ! Go to http://www.fuelvapors.com and find out what happened to [the late] Tom Ogle. He was offered $25 Million to keep His Vaporfuel System Off the Market.This was Years before the OBD II Law. He Refused.He's Dead ! The Murder remains unsolved ! Also, check http://energy21.freeservers.com/bookrep.html All Vehicles World-Wide are set up to run at 14.7 to 1 . So, don't blame the USA.Blame the U.N.!

Answer 3

You should sit back and observe the news more, and from various sources at that. Americans are not the only ones that use vehicles on a daily basis.

But in respect to your comment about gas guzzling suv's, yes they are a mass of what is on the US roadways. For years, bigger is better has been an American tradition. Smaller vehicles were thought of as unsafe, and unworthy.

Hybrid vehicles are slowly making their prescence known. As a personal opinion, they should have been introduced much sooner, but alas, at least the effort is there.

As an American, I am not intent on killing anyone, nor the planet. When driving, I plan trips on making multiple stops in a single area and not go back and forth. I use a smaller sedan that offers effeciency.

Don't down ALL Americans, We are not all snoody, upstuck gas hogs! ;)

Answer 4

I am assuming you are in the UK. During my vacations in the UK, I noticed that some Brits also drive large SUVs and full-size pickup trucks. Americans, like anyone anywhere, drive large vehicles because they can. When necessity dictates otherwise, everyone everywhere will adapt.

Gasoline (the commodity itself) actually is not cheaper in the US than in the UK. It seems that way because the UK has motor fuel taxes many times higher than in the US to help pay for its generous social programs.

Senseless bashing of Americans, or any other national group, always displays ignorance and a person's frustration with his or her own life. I would recommend that you look to improving your personal outlook before embarking on improving the rest of the world.

The UK has a long and distinguished history and remains a world power. I have thoroughly enjoyed my trips to your island, even if gasoline is $6.00 a gallon.

Answer 5

In America we have blue sky's, clean air.
In Asia and India they have a brown cloud for sky.
What waste would that be? We drive the same cars everyone else does with the same mileage that everyone else gets. We recycle, our rivers are clean, Our National parks and preserves are larger than many Nations.
Excess? Yes our system does provide. Our poor live better than anywhere else in the world. No one has starved to death in this country in over 150 years. Under Communism about 40 million have starved. In North Korea about half a million a year. In Africa about 2 million. America gives away to the poor nations of the world more food than Europe produces. America has brought freedom to people all over the world. In fact nearly 1 billion have been given freedom from dictators, Communism, Religious fanatics, Fascist over the last 65 years by America`s excess. I think we use our excess quite well.
Our Enemies hate us for that and yes tell you through their propaganda what evil wasteful people we are. Our enemies that dictate the size of stones to be used to kill a woman for some perceived sexual sin.

Answer 6

Oh please. Britain cut down almost all of its trees centuries ago, upsetting the ecological balance of the entire British Isles. Russia has nuclear waste sites that have never been cleaned up and nuclear submarines laying on their sides at pier with signs telling people not to come closer than 200 meters from risk of permanent radiological damage. The Danube is full of heavy metal toxins from unbridled dumping from eastern bloc industry during the Soviet era. The Japanese are fishing the seas to extinction. India's holy sacraments involving swimming in the Ganges are life-threatening affairs. You can't see across the streets in downtown Bejing for the air pollution, nor in Mexico City. Brazil is denuding its rain forest. Haiti has so destroyed its ecological system that its top soil washed away a century ago. States all over Africa are wiping out endangered species.

Meanwhile the United States has taken enormous strides in cleaning its air. Pittsburgh, once a center of air and water pollution is positively pristine these days. The U.S. leads the world in reducing auto emissions through technological innovation and was the first country in the world to set pollution standards for cars. We also have some of the world's most stringent rules for industrial dumping in waterways.

Yes, we have a great many cars, and we use a great deal of oil, but we have considerable distances to cover compared to a Belgium, a France, a Germany or a United Kingdom. We also value our personal liberty highly, and are not the sort of socialist sheep that are willing to be herded onto public transportation even if we had the extensive networks possible in smaller countries.

Be staggered as you may by our waste and excess. It is that excess that allows the United States the latitude to come a'running when Hitler invades, when the Iron Curtain divides Europe, when China is unwillingly included in Japan's Southeast Asian Co-prosperity Sphere, when Saddam Hussein gasses his own people in a systematic ethic cleansing of the Kurds, and so on and so on. And do we come take your land? No, we pay, we bleed, we rebuild your sorry selves, and we take the criticism that all lesser states always heap upon the greater ones in history.

We are not perfect--far from it. But wherever you are from, chances are at one time or another, and maybe several times, the United States has come to your country's aid, and you are an ungrateful wretch, as quick to forget as you are to criticize.

Answer 7

Petrol/electric cars like the Prius are fine in traffic as the engine runs efficiently to charge the battery and then the electric motor produces enough go for traffic. But they are very expensive to buy and maintain once the batteries start to go and the weight of the batteries does not make them that efficient. If they are driven at motorway speeds they use as much fuel as a normal car.
RoyS

Answer 8

MANY Americans drive regular cars. Most of my friends drive Hondas/Toyotas. I agree most American cars are crap. And a lot of people couldn't give a **** about the waste of it all. However, China is about to surpass the US on gasoline. It also uses more coal and has much higher emissions when it comes to coal fired power plants and such.
The reason people here haven't changed is that the gov't is too scared to do anything about it for fear of offending people and losing votes. Bush blows, and he obviously wouldn't do anything to help the situation, he's from Texas. A lot of people over here would like things to change. Since we can't really do it with the cars we are doing it in other ways. Recycling, creating nature preserves, more parks in city areas, carpooling, taking mass transit when possible(it is not nearly as available over here as it is in other places).

Answer 9

Gas prices have recently dropped here quite a bit. Around the equivelant of 75p per gallon in the past month. Around here it's near 1.5 pounds/gallon . So i don't see it killing the SUV market soon.

But thankfully there is a growing trend of smaller cars that are better built and nicely designed. Economy cars around here have a reputation of being tiny, cramped, and trashy. With the newer cars like the mini and the new Nissan Versa, there might be a new trend coming.

Answer 10

we're all doing our part in ruining the planet, not just the Americans. The Irish signed the Kyoto Protocol but continue to be one of the biggest contributers to pollution in Europe. The vast majority of England is affected by some sort of severe pollution. England have Sellafield. Need I say more?

Answer 11

Like you have room to talk. The British Empire, back in its full glory, wasted and polluted world wide, subjugated millions of people around the globe and enforced and iron-fist style of government wherever it's ships landed. Concidering that that Industrial revolution was spawned in the British Isles, I dare say that per capita, Great Britain has wasted a fair amount itself, not only in raw materials and resources, but in human lives too.

SO SOD OFF!