Outdoor Recreation. Has anyone else been put off by the fact that major outdoor magazines pander to SUV's.

Question

Monthly mags dedicated to anti pollution sports like bicycling, camping, kayaking etc. (Outside,Backpacker etc) are major advertising spots for gas guzzling, polluting SUVs. Is that a sellout?

Answer 1

not really because the anti-pollution aspect of those sports is just a "perk", most people's main reason to participate in those is because its fun.....and how else are you going to haul all that equipment and people around, porters? ;)

Answer 2

First off, no one in the world is "pro-pollution". So being "anti-" is an oxymoron.

Even the executives of large corporations don't want to pollute the earth, it's just that their definition of pollution is sometimes skewed from economic reasons.

Outdoor sports people, myself included, need the means to get to the rapidly decreasing wilderness. My Jeep isn't decreasing that wilderness, the number of people that live and work on the Earth is.

My SUV has a smaller more efficient engine, uses much less gas and pollutes the air a heck of a lot less that the car my mom and dad first took me camping in when I was a kid.

It's also cleaner than most cars on the road, particularly the un-maintained old wrecks the poor people in my city drive.

Why don't you go complain about the old pickup that Mr. Sanchez drives around to pick up cardboard boxes or the old Buick that Ms. Johnson putts around her seven kids in? Why? Because you'd be a racist, elitist pig that's why.

But it's OK to be complaining about Chip and Buffy's new Hummer?

The problem clearly is not SUVs but people. Way too many of them.

If you were really committed to reducing pollution, you would eliminate part of the problem, starting with getting yourself sterilized. Have you done this yet?