Tyre Extinguishers, a British group whose preferred method of fighting climate change is to deflate the tires of large vehicles, says it let the air out of the tires of 43 vehicles on Beacon Hill last night.
The group took this action to render the large greenhouse gas emitting vehicles unusable, directly preventing the outpouring of emission from the vehicles into our atmosphere which further contribute to climate change and air pollution. Only large, luxury, gas powered SUVs were targeted by the group; no tires were deflated on electric or hybrid vehicles nor any vehicles with handicap signage. The group left leaflets on the cars to inform the owners about why their vehicle was impacted, imploring them to stop using their SUVs and switch to public transportation, biking, or smaller compact electric and hybrid cars.
Rather than slicing open tires, participants use lentil seeds or similar:
When you drop a lentil in a valve stem cap and screw the cap back on, the air will slowly leak out of the tire.
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Comments
I love the lentil approach
By Tim Mc.
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:01pm
Makes a statement, but no property damage.
I'm not sure about "no property damage"
By Bob Leponge
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:59pm
I would defer to the lawyers on this, but I think you'd have a hard time defending the claim of "no property damage" if you render someone's car unusable in such a way as to require either running out and buying a pump or calling a truck to come re-inflate your tires.
Poorly-prepared drivers
By Ari O
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 2:29pm
A bicycle floor pump with a Schrader valve costs like $30 and can sit in the back of your car for whenever you need to top up your tires. Takes about 5 minutes of effort to pump up the tires to full pressure (and less time to top off). Easier than finding gas station pumps. (Long ago, many gas stations had free air, not so much anymore.)
Bonus: when you're driving and see a cyclist by the side of the road changing a flat with an air pump, you can pull over and help them out.
If I took the tire off your bike
By robo
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:41pm
And placed it in the woods to protest cyclists that run red lights. You’d just walk into the woods laughing because it was funny and a minor inconvenience. Ya, right!
Que?
By Kaz
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:57pm
Nobody's tires were removed from their cars.
If you flattened my tires on my bike, then yes, it'd be a minor inconvenience.
I bet most of the sorts of cars (large luxury SUVs) they targeted had run-flats anyways. Other than the pamphlet, they probably wouldn't have even noticed an issue until they saw the tire pressure warning light and went to an air compressor. Making sure the lentil didn't just stay in the valve/cap would have probably been the most annoying part.
Pulling a front tire off a bike takes at most 1 minute
By robo
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 6:58pm
And less than a minute putting it back on. A simple minor inconvenience. No big deal.
Oh honey
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 8:08pm
Did someone touch your precious Porsche Trashcan?
So sorry that you are too much of a little prince to even do minor service on your own car.
Tell me you don’t own a modern car
By robo
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 8:50pm
Without telling me you don’t own a modern car. Do you know how much a Porsche OBD scanner tool than can clear a service indicator costs? Oh, you don’t. I’m not surprised.
Stick to epidemiology and e-bikes. That’s what you know, even though your ego tells you different.
Complexity isn't impressive to me
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 9:24pm
Simplicity is. So is efficiency - and bikes and ebikes are the most efficient solution for limited distance travel and occasional longer excursions.
Maybe I like my bikes because ... oh ... because I completely rebuilt my first car's engine when I was nineteen? And did most of my own car repairs for another couple of decades? And dealing with a bike is simpler? And you can nearly always push it, carry it, put it on the T or pick it up with the very practical brand new household vehicle if it fails?
And, yes, the tire pump was one of the first things we put in it. Might want to stay away from the spraygoosh - it wrecks your wheel sensors.
So starting at 19…
By robo
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 10:44pm
I’m going to peg you at 60 now. Please don’t take offense, I’m really just guessing. That would mean the engine you rebuilt was from 1982. I rebuilt my eclipse 2.0T motor and threw on a T16 in 1999. It really wasn’t that hard. Motors were a lot more complicated in 1999 than 1982 and infinitely more complicated in 2023. You’re proving my point.
Check out the big cojones on robo
By dwhogan
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 10:49am
Are they robotic/cybernetic/or still your own analog balls?
What cojones?
By anon
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 7:57pm
Do we even know that this person is male or for real?
I think your play on words is wrong
By Medfordian
Sun, 04/23/2023 - 1:20pm
I think you're using "Trashcan" in place of the Porsche "Taycan," but that's a fully electric vehicle which is what these groups want people to drive.There's also very little service on EVs as there's no oil to change, engine maintenance, and the brakes last a long time because of the regenerative braking instead of using the pads.
I keep forgetting how bad people are at preparedness.
By Tim Mc.
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 5:33pm
I just kind of assume that everyone carries a cheap hand-pump in their trunk, right next to the spare tire and the lug nut wrench thingy. And that people have a few spare gallon containers of water in the back of a closet for emergencies. And that they keep a little bit of cash in case their phone or card doesn't work. But every once in a while I am reminded that common sense ain't common.
So yeah, I had figured that the SUV drivers would have to spend a few minutes pumping up their tires. But some of them were probably left somewhat stranded.
Almost all of my cars don’t have a spare option
By robo
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 7:00pm
Instead, I get a can of goop and air that will ‘repair’ a flat, but result in needing to replace the tire. Most high performance SUVs and cars done come with a spare.
I mean, if it works, and if it's what you want, then fine.
By Tim Mc.
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 7:42pm
Point is, you'd at least be prepared.
I used to do that before I
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 4:58pm
I used to do that before I had AAA. But isn't it bad for the tire?
It will get you out of the
By Rob
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 8:04pm
It will get you out of the situation.
There's something about it, though. I don't know exactly what - lingering toxic chemicals or flammability - that you need to tell the person removing the tire from the wheel what's in it so they can do it safely. ...and I don't know what happens if you leave it in and have a later blowout with that stuff in the tire.
5 mins?
By merlinmurph
Wed, 04/26/2023 - 7:39am
You think so, huh?
I'm thinking more like a half-hour especially a larger SUV tire, with rest breaks.
Been there, done that.
Even one of those small cigarette-lighter pumps can take 20+ minutes, and you shouldn't let them run that long. They'll break. I loaned mine out to a young couple who woke up to a flat in the campground. Next time I tried to use it, it didn't work.
Tire Deflation
By thomas mccusker
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:30pm
This nothing but vandalism. Simply leaving the leaflets on the windshield gets your point across. Do they think the car owners are going to be sympathetic?
Oh, to be clear, I don't know if this helps at all.
By Tim Mc.
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 5:26pm
To a large extent, I think what's going on is that people realize there's a climate emergency, but can't find effective levers to move the citizenry and the government to do something about it, so they're trying... anything, really. And this is anything, as it were.
So I don't know if it's the *right* thing, but I do find it a bit clever.
It gets people talking
By dwhogan
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 11:00am
About a very important issue in the newspaper of record, on social media, and here in the warm confines of Adam's creation.
I wouldn't buy an SUV. I grew up seeing them as no different than gaudy jewelry or club sports. A way to use money to make you feel better than others. The more luxxxe, the better you are. It's like those rehab centers that you pay all this extra money to, just so you dohn't have to be in a room with another drug addict whose earning potential is lower than yours.
I hate having to navigate around them as I drive, because they have poor visibility, believe they are superior, and also sit high enough up that they see themselves as literally over you, which results in more and more people doing just the same. So now everyone's driving vehicles into a city, that were designed to haul camping equipment up a mountain, which has been retrofitted to still kind of be able to do that but instead focus on ensuring that your body, mind, and ego are all cocoooned in your own portable traveling mini-mall.
The lentils are such a nice touch.... a superfood!
Really?
By lbb
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 8:33pm
Are you quite sure that that's what they're talking about?
Doesn't seem like it to me.
Really again?
By merlinmurph
Sat, 04/22/2023 - 6:40pm
Really? My old 4-cyl Honda Element was classified as an SUV and it was fantastic. Why? The "U" in SUV means something. A regular sedan is useless to me. We could put two bicycles in the Element standing up with the front tires off and nested so that they took minimal space. Being inside was good for so many reasons - security, cleanliness, they won't get whacked by overhangs, etc. Lots of room left over for camping gear, etc. It had an amazing amount of room for a small car.
Not every SUV is luxe monster car.
Makes a statement, but no
By Rob
Sat, 04/22/2023 - 1:30pm
Makes a statement, but no property damage.
up
Even if true, it's still vandalism.
There's other types of damage, too - causing somebody to be late for work, or a doctor's appt, etc...
It might result in physical damage, too.
- someone parked very close to curb and you lower their car, you might scratch their surfaces, especially if you block their door as a result.
- their method (using the valve cap to press lentil seeds against the valve stem and cause a slow leak) might leave behind some schmutz to gum up the valve, so that has to be cleaned out, so not just "oh, refill the tire with your bike pump" that some have been saying.
Really, the lentil is telltale of the pathetic cowardice of these vandals. They don't have the courage to stick around and maybe be observed during their act of "protest" (news flash - the air comes out faster if you use the point of the valve cap or a key or a pen to press down the stem (or even faster if you use the correct tool to actually remove the stem)), so they start a slow leak and run away.
the inconvenience is the point
By berkleealum
Sun, 04/23/2023 - 12:12pm
this post underscores the reality that there is no socially acceptable form of protest
If inconvenience beyond such
By Rob
Sun, 04/23/2023 - 7:51pm
If inconvenience beyond such necessary to exercise one's right to speech & protest* is being employed to make a 'point' like that, then one has indeed gone beyond socially acceptable protest.
Socially acceptable protest movements don't succeed
By anon
Mon, 04/24/2023 - 8:40am
Every single successful protest movement ever has "gone beyond socially acceptable protest". Read contemporary accounts of the civil rights movement, women's suffrage, gay rights, the Dalit Panthers, the brothers Gracchi (it's debatable if they were even successful), South African apartheid,... All of them.
Yes, my list is biased towards the US and the last 150 years. So is this movement.
As a rule, vegans only _talk_ about their diet, and our culture _hates_ them for even doing that.
This doesn't mean that "socially _un_acceptable" means "righteous".
But "socially acceptable" seems to mean "ignorable".
An immobile SUV
By Michael
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:03pm
The ultimate space-saver
This is brilliant
By dan r
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:06pm
and if you own one of the targets, you’re probably some kind of assclown anyway, so let’s bring on the whining!
Wah wah my giant tank has been immobilized
I know you're getting likes and are feeling smug right now.
By registeredUser2
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:58pm
But people like you are douchebags that have made living in Boston worse. Clearly blanketing all types of large vehicle owners that may have families (heaven forbid) or jobs where they transport things in their vehicles.
If losing your SUV makes "living in Boston worse" then move out.
By Greene
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:11pm
Jobs and families will be perfectly fine without their Yukon XL.
many of these
By anon
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:23pm
are used to haul lattes, not lumber. calm down
Try a minivan or a truck,
By anon
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:40pm
Try a minivan or a truck, then. Both do a better job transporting people and things than SUVs.
Minivan
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 8:13pm
I had one of the smallest minivans available and I never had to put anything on top coming out of IKEA like the Jeeps and Exploders had to.
Also a great carpool car, with seating for six adults.
Are they better for the climate?
By lbb
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 8:41am
Are they better for the climate, then?
Asking for a friend.
Lighter than SUVS
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 6:18pm
MInivans are lighter than SUVs, have smaller engines, and haul more people per vehicle weight/gas consumed if you have more people to haul.
Really?
By lbb
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 8:35pm
My car, according to MA RMV, is a "SUV". It's, uh, really pretty small. It is dwarfed by the average minivan. Seems like if your vehicle has a hatch, they call it a "SUV" no matter what size it is.
Minivans are really lighter than SUVs, huh? I mean, I don't know who gets to decide which is which these days.
Few true minivans anymore
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 9:03pm
When I had an 2006 MPV the difference was a bit clearer. It was a good 2000 lbs lighter than the most comparable 6 seat SUV.
I go with wagons these days, but even my Impreza was considered to be an SUV by some. Then again, Subarus are most likely to be actually used as sport utility vehicles.
I wish there were smaller options
By merlinmurph
Sun, 04/23/2023 - 11:49am
I agree, minivans aren't so mini anymore.
There is a class of small vans now that are an option, like the Ford Transit Connect and others. Problem is that they are commercial oriented. They also lack AWD. Ford has a more consumer-oriented Transit Connect but I'm suspect. I'd have to see and drive one.
When we were in Croatia waiting for a ferry, there was a VW California in front os us that I wanted. Perfect size and utility, but not imported.
SUVs
By Bostoneer
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:35pm
They are also notoriously bad as actual work vehicles. The only things they are good for are pollution, taking up an enormous amount of space, and compensating for insecurities about your manhood.
Was having issues posting the link
By Bostoneer
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 4:02pm
But they also kill more kids than literally any other type of vehicle. This is easily found with a quick google. SUVs are a threat to children not a way to protect your family.
Waaaaah, waaaaaaah
By dan r
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 3:37am
Some people are pretty sick of your garbage. I would look at seriously considering who’s being a smug asshole here, because I’ve got about a thousand little incidents to back me up.
Waaaaaaah! Waaaaah! People are giving me blowback for driving a consumer tank, waaah
*crying eyes*
Huge SUV and pickups are
By tape
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 8:16pm
Huge SUV and pickups are something that actually makes living in this city a nightmare. They are deaths waiting to happen. It should be illegal to drive them in the city without a legitimate commercial purpose.
Because it's all about you
By merlinmurph
Wed, 04/26/2023 - 7:29am
Got it
A nightmare? Really, drama queen?
To me this would be "meh" as a form of protest
By tachometer
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:14pm
I don't have a giant gas-guzzler, but I do have a small air pump that plugs into what used to be known as the cigarette lighter. This "attack" would range from a mild inconvenience to an annoyance that I was made late to something.
An air inflator ain't helping
By Billy the goat 1234
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:08pm
An air inflator ain't helping you if they slashing the sidewalk of a tire. Any puncture close to the sidewalk is not repairable. So yes this is vandalism as each owner has to pay $1200 to get the tires replaced not a "mild inconvenience" as you say
did you read the post?
By anon
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:57pm
.
Except they didn't
By Kaz
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:59pm
Reading is fundamental.
They depressurized it with the valve.
Bro
By dwhogan
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 11:05am
They unscrew the air cap, put a lentil in it, and screw it back in. This causes the tire to deflate without any damage whatsoever to any part of the vehicle.
I don't even think it scuffs the interior of the black pastic cap that said lentil is inserted into.
We need more of this!
By Rwgfy
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:21pm
We need more of this!
The T agrees
By BostonDog
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:16pm
The MBTA has long shown solidarity by immobilizing their own vehicles.
As an environmentalist type,
By what what now?
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:45pm
I imagine that this could escalate to people doing the same, or worse, to EVs and hybrids.
The notion of an undeclared "Civil War" could identify the "other side" by the kind of vehicle they drive.
While I don't like to see big gas-guzzling and polluting vehicles out and about, targeting them like this will lead to retribution and, completely innocent car owners will be victimized by association.
“Innocent”
By Bostoneer
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:53pm
Choosing to spend more money than an average car to drive the single most polluting and dangerous type of vehicle for others isn’t exactly “innocent.”
somebody has to do something about
By Luke Warmer
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 12:55pm
all our various social issues, but it seems the people who could won't and so we are going into a period of prolonged vigilantism for ever. and I am definitely not looking forward to it. once the chaos is truly loosed on the land it will become its own economy, will become entrenched, and will not be easy retract it.
the world seems divided into people who would completely deny what I just said, and on the other hand those who would vehemently endorse it as the correct course of action.
not fun.
So…..
By John Costello
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 1:18pm
If I deflate property of British people in the Boston area because of their continued occupation of Northern Ireland, we are cool, right?
Sure!
By Transphobia Watch
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 2:30pm
The movement being reported on here is specifically targeting those who have personally demonstrated certain harmful choices, rather than dismantling structures.
However, if you are advocating for the inconveniencing of those who benefit from structural privilege, that gets a bit more complicated, but it is also a noble goal, and it's about time you recognized it rather than just your usual shtick of casual sexism and insisting that white people are oppressed.
So, you would need to target white people, who benefit from and perpetuate worldwide structural racism.
You would also need to include abled people, cisgender people, Christians, men, heterosexual people, among others, as these people also benefit from and perpetuate structural systems of oppression.
Not all of these people have vehicles though, so you'll probably need to focus your activism somewhere else. The solution that works the best at this time seems to be recognizing structural oppression, calling it out, and taking steps to include those who are structurally excluded. Let people know that occupying others' lands is wrong. Let people know that systems that favor some groups over others are wrong. Acknowledge the privileges you have and take steps to include the people who are often passed over in favor of your groups.
Please….
By John Costello
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:36pm
Go lick pavement.
Please ...
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 8:15pm
Consider that your glib statements will wither under scruitiny.
Recent polling data suggests you
By MC Slim JB
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 2:41pm
do not understand the low level of support for a United Ireland in Northern Ireland.
Yes,
By John Costello
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:50pm
But I righteously disagree with those people. Therefore I feel that I am allowed to take action against others who disagree with me.
These deflators are justifying their actions with their self imposed righteousness.
Anarchy is a two way street. That thought process is lost sometimes on people who blindly see their own beliefs as paramount.
I can’t stand SUV’s either. The fastest way to watch your trip get slower is putting your Dodge Ram or F150 within a few feet behind me on the highway. Nevertheless, don’t touch my stuff unless you want reciprocal and measured retaliation.
Stop being an idiot, John -
By Rob
Sun, 04/23/2023 - 8:01pm
Stop being an idiot, John - those other idiots got here first, they're working this gas-lamped, curb-ramped corner of Beacon Hill, so you gotta hit the road.
When you do hit the road, remember that obstructionist driving is aggressive driving, and illegal same as tailgating in most states.
What a dumb, puerile thing to
By anon
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 2:54pm
What a dumb, puerile thing to do.
No one noticed them ?
By anon
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 3:42pm
B.H. is infested with security cams.
Has this actually changed anybody's mind?
By NoMoreBanks
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 4:46pm
I get that sometimes groups need to take direct action when the slow wheels of the law have locked up and there's no path forward. But I just can't imagine there's a single person out there who already owns an SUV (and, in this case, is enough of a hardass or a masochist to park their SUV in Beacon Hill everyday) who finds their car immobilized when, presumably, they've otherwise about to use it, reads a pamphlet, and has a come to god moment about buying a hybrid.
If there's testimony to the contrary I'd love to see it but I just suspect the vast majority of these people either sigh and call a tow/AAA and get on with their day, and a minority get pissed and further entrenched in the "fuck you, my car is mine, stupid activists" attitude.
Like is this intended to change the minds of bystanders??? People walking by seeing the flat tires and read the pamphlet and go DANG next car I buy will be electric? Or what. It rewards people driving small cars, I guess, but they were already on your side. What is the goal here in terms of actually affecting real change vis a vis public opinion? Or is this all just stomping feet and lashing out?
I can think of more effective
By anon
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 6:02pm
I can think of more effective ways to protest.
Picket outside an SUV dealership. Hold a rally at the statehouse or EPA headquarters when climate legislation is being debated. Protest outside the Lexington town meeting that they should stop approving so many office parks with poor or nonexistent transit and pedestrian access. Speak at a Boston MPO meeting and ask them to get serious about transit expansion and curbing car-oriented development in the suburbs. Picket MassDOT headquarters and tell them to install sidewalks in the suburbs and plow them, and think about how someone on foot or a bicycle (or mass transit, if they ever start running it) is supposed to handle Route 1 or 9 where it can be miles between crossing opportunities.
Whelp
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 04/21/2023 - 6:16pm
It has clearly changed the minds of those who have looked to Europe for inspiration.
Gets a whole lot of attention, too.
What you
By Luke Warmer
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 4:57pm
Don't want to fail to understand about anarchy and chaos is that what will sustain them for a long wretched period of time is that...
the vile combo come to represent investment opportunities.
Try not to be so much of an egghead that you fail recognize the depth of that dilemma. Macro level it is already going on with private equity funding death squads. It just gets close and closer
And closer and closer......and so on. Use your imagyfor something other than your next Dunks purchase for a min.
Last week’s Economist
By dvg
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 5:35pm
Last week’s Economist magazine (not a tree hugging publication) had an article about the upcoming climate for the 700 million people (twice the US pop.) living in northern India and Pakistan and Bangladesh. Quote “The Indo-Gangetic Plain, which extends from the spine of Pakistan through northern India to the deltas of Bangladesh, is home to 700m people and exceptionally vulnerable to the heat pulses that climate change is making more frequent. It is one of the hottest, poorest and most populous places on Earth."
In these parts where folks have contributed very little to climate change, wet bulb temp (temp + humidity) is getting alarmingly deadly. That's only one of the many consequences of mindlessly sending so much carbon in the atmosphere.
Sorry, I got distracted from the most important issue of the day; the ethics of deflating SUV’s tires on Beacon Hill!
https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/04/02/global-w...
They have instructions on how to deflate a tire
By robo
Thu, 04/20/2023 - 7:32pm
Their members/supporters must not be the sharpest tools in the toolbox.
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