Owners of SUVs are being targeted by climate activists in response to the devastating flooding in Spain which has seen the loss of hundreds of lives, with protestors saying they will not stop until SUVs are banned.
The Tyre Extinguishers are an environmental protest group which aims to “make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4×4 in the world’s urban areas”, citing fears about the high level of emissions produced by the larger vehicles.
In its latest social media post, the protest group said outraged residents in Edinburgh had taken action to highlight the “disproportionate” role SUVs had in causing catastrophic weather seen in Valencia last week.
A number of large SUVs were targeted with spray-painted messages including “These cars kill kids” and “These cars kill Valencians”.
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The group blamed SUVs for contributing to ‘catastrophic weather’ events
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The action, which took place throughout Edinburgh’s New Town, saw the SUVs defaced, with protestors also covering windscreens with images of victims like 28-year-old footballer Jose Castillejo.
At present, at least 214 people have been killed in the devastating floods in Valencia, with further yellow, amber and red weather alerts present for the region, neighbouring Catalonia and Barcelona.
Civil and military emergency workers are searching car parks, garages and other popular areas as many fear more victims of the floods will be found.
Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Tyre Extinguishers said: “We call on all TX groups to take solidarity actions on behalf of climate victims. We won’t stop until these death machines are off our roads.”
The group has targeted SUVs in Edinburgh’s New Town
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Research from the International Energy Agency (IEA) states that the global CO2 emissions from SUVs alone account for almost one billion tonnes.
Other research from climate charity Possible reported that people in the top 20 per cent income bracket are 81 per cent more likely to own a highly emitting car than vehicle owners in the other 80 per cent.
Some of the notes left on the windscreens of the SUVs also included images of Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau, who were killed last year while at school in Wimbledon last year.
The case initially saw the Crown Prosecution Service announce that the woman driving the SUV would not face criminal charges, claiming that she had suffered an epileptic seizure. However, it has since been reopened following public backlash.
The group recently took action against SUVs in Lausanne, Switzerland
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Following the crash on July 6 last year, the Tyre Extinguishers launched a campaign of action to target SUVs in affluent areas around London, Edinburgh and other major European cities.
The Tyre Extinguishers also announced that it has most recently completed a campaign of action in Lausanne, Switzerland, where 47 SUVs were “disarmed”.
In a statement, the group said: “In the aftermath of deadly floods in Spain, this action aimed to make the population, especially the owners of these oversized vehicles, aware of the impact they have on climate change.”
Finland also recently became the 22nd country with an active Tyre Extinguisher group, having targeted SUVs in a “posh area of Helsinki”. They added that protestors were making “good use of the Suomi leaflet on our website”.
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The Tyre Extinguishers are now in operation across 22 countries
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Research from the IEA was also highlighted by TX which suggests that if SUVs were a country, they would be the world’s fifth largest emitter of CO2.
In total, SUVs emit fewer CO2 emissions than the likes of China, the United States, India and Russia, but do emit more than global powerhouses like Japan, Germany and Canada.
