Climate Activists Deflate Tyres Of Over 900 Cars In 8 Countries. Here’s Why

The Tyre Extinguishers, an environmental activist group, claimed to have deflated the tyres of approximately 900 sports utility vehicles (SUVs) on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, according to The Guardian.

“Overnight, groups took action in Amsterdam and Enschede in the Netherlands, Paris and Lyon in France, Berlin, Bonn, Essen, Hanover, and Saarbrucken in Germany, Bristol, Leeds, London, and Dundee in the UK, Malmo in Sweden, Innsbruck in Austria, Zurich and Winterthur in Switzerland, and New York in the US,” reported the news outlet.

“Last night (the evening of Monday, November 28 and the early morning of Tuesday, November 29), citizens in eight countries deflated the tyres on nearly 900 polluting SUVs,” the activist group said in a statement.

“This is the biggest coordinated global action against high-carbon vehicles in history, with many more to come.”

According to People Magazine, Tyre Extinguishers claim to have deflated over 10,000 SUVs in various cities worldwide since March in their effort to rid urban areas of the vehicles.

On their own website, the “Tyre Extinguishers” guerilla climate activism organisation explains why they are protesting against SUVs.

The group believes that SUVs are a climate disaster and cause heavy air pollution.

“SUVs and 4x4s are a disaster for our health, our public safety, and our climate. Bigger and bigger cars are dominating our towns and cities, all so a privileged few can flaunt their wealth. Because governments and politicians have failed to protect us from this danger, we must protect ourselves. We want to make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4×4 in the world’s urban areas. We do this by deflating the tyres of these massive, unnecessary vehicles, causing inconvenience and expense for their owners,” says the website of the organisation.