Tyre Extinguishers – taking on the SUVs one valve cap (and lentil) at a time – The road.cc Podcast

In this latest episode, we also speak with one of the members of Tyre Extinguishers – the activist group that has hit the headlines in recent weeks for going out at night and deflating the tyres of SUVs (with the help of lentils) and leaving leaflets highlighting to the owners the damage that their vehicles – collectively responsible for more emissions worldwide than all but five countries, according to a recent study – are doing to the environment, as well as the danger they pose to other road users including pedestrians and cyclists.
Why target those vehicles specifically, rather than other issues that could help reduce global emissions, we asked.
“We’ve chosen SUVs for a number of reasons – not least the International Energy Agency’s research showing that the increasing pace of SUV buying is cancelling out all the carbon savings from people switching to electric cars. If SUV drivers were a country, it would be the sixth-largest emitter in the world.”
As for the reaction they have received? “We’ve had very many death threats, almost entirely from men,” they told us. “There are a lot of men with fragile egos out there who seem to value their cars more than their children’s future.