BACK:

Just caught a press release from you guys disguised as a news story on Fox 11 in L.A. So, let me get this straight, dropping useful forms of transportation out of a inefficient prop driven airplane, with ZERO emission controls is somehow striking a blow for the environment? Just how much fuel do you guys burn getting into the air so you can perform one of your useless stunts? How much hydrocarbons and CO are released by your unregulated aircraft engine?

Oh, and I see on your website that you also blow up cars. How much pollution does burning all that paint, rubber and vinyl produce? I hope, at the least, you are stripping any usable part off the cars before destroying them. Reusing parts from old cars, as much as people hate to admit it, is recycling in it simplest form.

Hey, I hate SUV's. I ride a motorcycle. I own a VW Rabbit pick-up truck, which gets 30mpg, and can haul more than most SUVs in its bed. As a biker the SUV is my natural adversary, but I don't see you guy offering anything useful in your actions.

Are you just trying to get some publicity for your aerial cinematography, or sky diving business? You certainly ARE NOT environmentalists. No self respecting person concerned with the environment would be flying around burning gallons of jet fuel top perform some stupid stunts. For shame. For shame. At least a Suburban, or a Hummer is getting someone and their stuff from point A to point B, is your plane doing anything USEFULL while it's up there?

Please just reply to this with a few hard numbers on the fuel consumption of your plane per hour, and how long one of your little stunts take. Then fill me in on the exhaust emissions of an aircraft, or just let me know what your flying and I'll do the research myself. At the moment, I'm pretty sure that you are just a bunch of spoiled rich kids who have too much money, too much time, and are full of shit.

Bryan

Bryan:

i don't know how much fuel we're burning except to say you are correct - we're burning a lot of it and blowing up things is hardly environmentally friendly. we're a dirty bunch of dogs and depending on how you perceive things we may or may not be doing any good.

given your logic, tree huggers shouldn't use signs drawn on paper to protest cutting down a forest. the sierra club shouldn't sponsor speakers who jet around the planet or expeditions to remote regions to study the climate and god forbid all the smoke kicked up getting thousands of tree huggers and politicians across the planet to a world summit on the environment.

we're not protesting transportation or the internal combustion engine. we're protesting SUVs and light trucks because they suck. millions and millions of people drive them because they are in vogue, chic, the latest fad. picture a swimming pool filled with gas. every day it's emptied by SUVs and light trucks. once a month, my team comes along and takes a teaspoon of gas from the pool to stage a protest. we know it will make news cause it's loud, obnoxious, and catches the eye. we're not as rich as you think.

give me a better idea. how do you propose we get our message to a few million tvs without making a mess? better yet, what can You do to get the word out?

if it makes you feel any better, we hitch rides to altitude on planes already doing drop tests - still, the extra weight of an SUV burns extra fuel so it's dirty. your comment on blowing things up got me thinking a bit. i can't say for sure, but perhaps we could trash an SUV by blowing high pressure tanks rather than dynamite - i'll run it by an explosives guy. perhaps we could park an suv in or on top of a building that's going to be blown up anyway in a demolition. we're not out to torch and burn SUVs - we simply want to blow them up and create interesting shapes.

a hummer or suburban taking a person from point a to point b is guzzling gas. a million hummers and suburbans taking one person from point a to point b is a serious problem. besides, to use a hummer or suburban properly you'd have to tow a barge behind it with twenty more people from point a to point b.

I've never seen a protest about any issue that doesn't piss off at least a few people.

thanks for the letter
the Pig
www.gaspig.com

I do admire your candor. In truth I'm all for explosions and destroying stuff, It was a combination of for running your press release as news and the self righteousness of your whole campaign that got my dander up.

Personally I think "Part of the problem" bumper stickers slapped on the back of SUV's guerilla style would be making the point better, even if it is illegal, and it doesn't take much in the way of resources.

i'm surprised you wrote back, thanks! i have to admit, we're self righteous and we are pointing fingers. but it's an evolving process and for me there's a lot more doubt and second guessing the more i learn about the issue. it was black and white at first - good guys against bad guys, easy. the more i learn, the more it becomes shades of gray.

some of the guys i work with are totally in to tagging SUVs. its a good idea, why not give big SUV drivers some grief? i opted against it mostly because as soon as they see the sticker, it's gone. when someone puts the gaspig.com sticker on their own car or truck, it's there for as long as they leave it and thousands of people see it. i also realized i'd have to tag my friends and family. i talked most of them out of getting another SUV when their existing lease was up, but for now they're kind of stuck with the big rides. i figure a lot of SUV drivers are in the same boat. if we can raise awareness, perhaps they'll think twice the next time at the dealership.

thanks again for writing!
the Pig
www.gaspig.com