NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- An environmental activism group that has declared war on SUVs claimed responsibility for deflating the tires of 40 different vehicles on the Upper East Side Wednesday night.
The Tire Extinguishers, a U.K. group which usually uses the British spelling Tyre Extinguishers, aim to “make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4x4 in the world’s urban areas.”
“Deflating tyres repeatedly and encouraging others to do the same will turn the minor inconvenience of a flat tyre into a giant obstacle for driving massive killer vehicles around our streets,” writes the group on their website. “We’re taking this action because governments and politicians have failed to protect us from these huge vehicles. Everyone hates them, apart from the people who drive them.”
The decentralized group takes responsibility for strikes carried out with instructions on its website carried out in its name.
In a social media post announcing the New York strike, the group claimed actions in the U.K., the U.S., Austria, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden and New Zealand.
The New York cell left flyers on the cars they hit headlined, “Attention: your gas guzzler kills.”
“Car Companies try to convince us we need massive cars. But SUVs and 4x4s are nails in the coffin of our climate,” wrote the activists in the letter. “SUVs are the second-largest cause of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions over the past decade - more than the entire aviation industry. If all SUVs were a nation, it would be the sixth-highest CO2 emitting country on the planet.”
The group also pointed to the immediate impacts SUVs have on traffic safety and pollution in the city as a cause for the strike.
“Even if you don’t care about the impacts on our children’s future or people around the world, there are immediate consequences for your neighbors,” they wrote. “SUVs cause more deadly air pollution than smaller cars. SUVs are more likely to kill people than normal cars in collisions. Psychological studies show SUV drivers are more likely to take risks on the road. SUVs are unnecessary, and pure vanity at the expense of others’ lives.”
The NYPD told the New York Post they received tire deflating reports from the area and are investigating.
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