Green | July 24, 2008 | 61 comments

Blowing up a $60,000 SUV to save the planet

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shadowtrekker
Ryan Mickle seems like a sane guy. He’s well spoken, intelligent and pretty successful. He’s also environmentally conscious, to the point that he realized he didn’t need his two-year-old Range Rover Sport when his job relocated him to San Francisco.

But that wasn’t enough for Ryan. Tired with what he calls an “incremental approach to addressing climate change,” he wants to make sure nobody else makes the same mistake he did: buying an inefficient car totally unsuited to his needs. A self-professed “believer in the wisdom of the crowd,” he launched onefewer.org to let online voters decide the fate of his car. Mickle promises his gas-guzzler will be taken off the road, never to emit another hydrocarbon.

Unless, of course, the voters decide to set it on fire.
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61 comments // Blowing up a $60,000 SUV to save the planet

  • hunzedog
  • unclecharlie
    • 0
      unclecharlie  
    • What a moron. More proof that the only people who buy Range Rovers are arrogant, self centered pricks who say "Look at me! Look at me!" There's a lot of low income folks who could use that Range Rover to go to a halfway decent job.......If you want to make a REAL change, donate it to a needy family via a charity like Volunteers of America.......As we say in Pittsburgh, "What a jagoff!"

    • 3 years ago
  • Jake87
  • damnneargenius
  • iloveravi
    • 0
      iloveravi  
    • I'm all for exploding shit but tis seems a bit misguided. The car can be converted to an electric for about 17 grand.

      Why not give it to someone that desperately needs a vehicle with the requirement that they have it converted.

      But, I have to admit....blowing it us is also pretty good...

      Yeah, it is a tough one.....

    • 3 years ago
  • dwb2585
  • jimenagamio
  • neocongo
    • 0
      neocongo  
    • This is the kind of idiocy that gives actual environmentalists a bad name. I'm sorry but if, only two years ago you didn't know the consequences of buying a vehicle like this, you can only be a shlub. I'm not going to, and I hope no one else, legitimizes his epiphany by participating on his website. Maybe if he pledges to be in the vehicle when he torches it.

      He really seems the type more suited to making beer bong videos for Youtube.

    • 3 years ago
  • phukna
  • pvl1
    • 0
      pvl1  
    • well hes making a statement. plus its for kicks and laughs. but yea he could do something a bit more productive...

    • 3 years ago
  • phukna
  • sgwhites
    • 0
      sgwhites  
    • If he really is set on destroying it, why not donate it to a fire/rescue department to use for training? They'll rip it apart, but at least it'll have the benefit of training first responders.

    • 3 years ago
  • crob80227
    • 0
      crob80227  
    • As everyone already pointed out he should just convert it to run on waste grease or something.

      I'm surprised no one has made a business out of delivering bio-disel to people who have converted their cars and trucks.

      My understanding is that that is the big draw back -- there aren't enough places (nearby) where people can just fill up on alt fuels.

      Well, why hasn't some enterprising person thought of just bringing the bio-disel straight to your house and filling it up that way? They already do that for people who live in the sticks and rely on propane.

      If it's a 2nd car that you don't need to fill up every other day -- then home fuel delivery might be a good option, no?

    • 3 years ago
  • shadowtrekker
    • 0
      shadowtrekker  
    • crob80227:

      it exists in San Fran area, if you are interested I can send you info - I make over 800 gallons a month for my trucking company but I have a very close friend who gets thousands of gallons a month and can deliver it to your home or you can go to his retail pump to fill up.

    • 3 years ago
  • doni83
  • doni83
    • 0
      doni83  
    • Um...that's kind of douchey...

      Apparently I'm not the only one that’s pissed at the fact that he has enough money and arrogance to be willing to scrap an SUV and get publicity in the process...WTF

    • 3 years ago
  • Kylsport
  • NoGodsNoMasters
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • i think destroying the vehicle is a pompous and ignorant waste -- something only a wasteful American would do -- and then consider it a contribution to the environment.

      There are plenty of struggling organizations and poor folks out there who would love to take his vehicle, and use it to transport elderly patients, bring food to the hungry, or at the very least recycle it for scrap, but no, Mr. I need attention has a better idea. What a moron!

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • Incredulous:

      I don't think his intent is to get attention. He means well and that should be acknowledged.

      He is, according to his thinking, bring attention to what he thinks is important and it's environmental.

      Youtube bloggers want attention. This is an attempt at being informative.

    • 3 years ago
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • Incredulous:

      righhhhhht.... and if you believe that I have some real estate you might be interested in too.

      it is one of the most insensitive attempts at "means well" I have seen in a while. How many of the poor of this world do you think can afford to do something like this to bring attention to their own desperate cause?

      It is completely insensitive to the poor who can't even afford a car. I don't give a damn how well meaning he is, he needs to get a clue. The majority of the world's population cannot afford this type of waste just to make a point, and it is heartless, cold and cruel for him to be so clueless about how his little attempt at being environmentally correct impacts their lifelong poverty. It is ignorant.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • Incredulous:

      Um...unless you give all what you can to the poor I don't want to read self-righteous speak as if everyone who has more than you should give to what you think is important.

      Get off whatever high horse you are on and whatever you are smoking and come off that throne you're on and understand that people will do what they want with what they bought and you cannot voice an opinion that will matter if you, yourself, don't do as you speak and command.

      Unless you've given a car, your vacation money, your hard earned cash to a cause that you are clamoring about...don't ever demand someone to do the same and act as if you're justified to do so.

    • 3 years ago
  • Abamanation
    • 0
      Abamanation  
    • Incredulous:

      He can get just as much attention, if he were to take that car and donate it to a worthy cause if he no longer intended to us it.

      He's just going for the "edgy" "shock" value to draw attention to himself as opposed to making himself look like a rational upstanding do-gooder.

      Now if he really wanted attention he could offer to buy other people's SUV's for recycling or donation. Hell maybe even start a non-profit org that’s dedicated to getting gas guzzlers off the road, but no ... that’s not going to happen. He'd rather make his statement by creating more waste.

      We can only hope that he's sitting in the truck when he blows it up. Hey has anyone checked? Maybe it is one of the choices on his website.

    • 3 years ago
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • Incredulous:

      Jammer--this is America. I can disapprove all day long if I so choose, and he can blow his stupid SUV up if he wants to too...but because I am in America, I can call him a moron for doing it...

      and I'm really trying to exercise some control over what I call you.

    • 3 years ago
  • doni83
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • GHOSTBUSTERS....go on sing that theme song...you know you wanna.

      You know how when you were a teenager and your parent was like CLEAN YOUR ROOM...it's disgusting. Something smells....fix that. Stuff that you heard but because they said it sooooo much you started not to care?

      Or maybe instead of your parent(s) it's your boss....

      Well that's how it feels with pot, this disgusting election and, of course, everyone and everything to do with the environment.

      Nothing like creating a black hole of apathy.

      Pat yourself on the collective backs or what was that coined phrase in the article.....crowdsourcing...that's it....

    • 3 years ago
  • damnneargenius
  • malathion
    • 0
      malathion  
    • F him . he's just doin it because he's in a new town and wants to get some poon , so he's like "hey ladies , look at me , i'm so rich i can afford to waste a land rover , and i'm also sensitive and care about the environment ." what a tool.

    • 3 years ago
  • doni83
  • arghENMY
  • damnneargenius
  • wakka
    • 0
      wakka  
    • There is no sensible or “green” way to dispose a perfectly functional car before its service life is finished. Destroying or recycling it before it is obsolete it’s just not sustainable. If he wants to get rid of it he should sell it to somebody that needs an SUV – reusing is probably the most sensible and sustainable possibility.

      Next time he should think before buying.

    • 3 years ago
  • petarro
    • 0
      petarro  
    • How stupid. Becoming an extremist to the point of burning or destroying your 60K car.

      Sell it, take the money and donate it to victims in Darfur. There is much more than "gas emissions"

    • 3 years ago
  • plainjane
  • merckrx
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  
    • 'I wept because I had no shoes, then I met a man that had no feet"

      Wouldn't someone that had no transportation at all be glad to have that car?

      Blowing it up doesn't do squat for the enviroment since there is still a mess to clean up, it just causes more in the waste products produced by destroying it.

    • 3 years ago
  • mransom
    • 0
      mransom  
    • Range Rovers usually appeal to a really perverse side of me, but I've been coming to my senses, and remembering all of the stupid assholes that have cut me off in their Range Rovers, while pooping out noxious gases.

    • 3 years ago
  • azalea
    • 0
      azalea  
    • I hope he doesn't do something stupid like set it on fire or blow it up or chuck it in a landfill. That would be the opposite of green. It would be red.

    • 3 years ago
  • shadowtrekker
    • 0
      shadowtrekker  
    • I think a conversion would be the best way to go, this guy seems to have the money so drop a diesel in it and run 100% biodiesel made from waste grease.

    • 3 years ago
  • Abamanation
  • pablomelendez
    • 0
      pablomelendez  
    • I knew this sort of thing would happen eventually. It's taken so long, though. Those filthy machines should have been banned from production years ago. Now, someone should figure out what is the best way for anyone to put their SUV away permanently. Ryan's approach is to garner as much attention as is possible with his Rover. That's only one, though. I would like to see all SUVs on the road today crushed for scrap.

    • 3 years ago
  • jay_ct
  • Abamanation
    • 0
      Abamanation  
    • pablomelendez:

      I think that a good way to get rid of an SUV would be to line up a bunch of far left eco-nutz and hit them at a good rate of speed ....

      It would be like killing 2 (4,8,10 depending how many you can hit) birds with one stone ... your bound to destroy the SUV, and in the process your ridding the world of some lefty whack-jobs.

    • 3 years ago
  • THump704
    • 0
      THump704  
    • although his idea is a little out there it should at the very least be a good example to celebrities and big names around the world to make some sort of change.

    • 3 years ago
  • indiankungfu
  • dfmoreno
  • RoBot_rOcKer
  • Abamanation
  • TopScruffy
  • TexasPatriot67
  • RudyRudell
  • refbum
    • 0
      refbum  
    • I'll buy it for $2,500 and he can donate that money to a Childrens Hospital for Cancer Research.

      If he really doesn't want that vehicle, THAT badly, he can donate my cash to a worthy cause, such as a childrens organization and I'll have a good used vehicle.

      What a better way to take my GREEN and help a worthy cause? I recycle and will use it sparringly. I drive about three thousand miles a year and this will last me a long time.

    • 3 years ago
  • clayjj05
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  
    • Move to San Francisco then smoke weed one night and next thing you know you've created a website to let a bunch of strangers dispatch your Land Rover? Nice.

    • 3 years ago
  • clayjj05
    • 0
      clayjj05 [removed]  
    • GRATS ON GETTING THROUGH THE BIG BAD STORM

      I turned on my lights today and they worked so thanks mr burns. Then i got in my car and turned it on, and it worked. so thanks again mr burns

    • 3 years ago
  • mrburns
    • 0
      mrburns  
    • what a mo mo, more money than sense!

      I pledge he unplug his life and never use energy again.

      stupid is a stupid does

      God bless america
      God bless Big oil

    • 3 years ago
  • TopScruffy
  • clayjj05
  • Dmitri_Molotov
  • Allsunday
    • 0
      Allsunday  
    • Yeeeah, fire would kind of defeat the purpose. I say convert it to biodiesel and donate it to a wildlife conservation group that could get some use out of a good off-roader.

    • 3 years ago
  • Bigdog_mike
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