If you made it this far, you likely saw the posts on Wired (which made its way to the Yahoo’s home page), Treehugger, or Digg. Thanks to all of you, I now have 800 emails with your ideas, as well as 400 comments to read.
Stay tuned on Monday next week, when I’ll share some of the best ideas.
And by the way, I am fully aware that blowing the Rover up or launching it into the Pacific Ocean would be environmentally unconscionable. That’s why I’m asking all of you to help me.
The picture I ran around like crazy to take for Wired yesterday. Apparently not everyone likes the Ghostbusters.
COMMENTS / 28 COMMENTS
SEbastian added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 12:51 pmyour SUV will be appreciated in my country, Chile.
i want one of these, and if you drive here, it’s a great experience.
TwistedBic added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 1:36 pmWho you going to call? You know the Ghostbusters could use an updated vehicle for their bustin needs. Their current (59 Cadillac) is probably worse for the environment. Just an idea.
yogamama added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 4:09 pmIt seems wasteful to me that you would destroy a perfectly good car. Why not donate it to charity? You could even donate money for gas since it seems like money isn’t an issue for you.
Caroline Glass added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 5:03 pmNow pay attention, because I’m going to give you some important instructions. First, you are going to build an ark. Out of timber. With sails.
Then you drive your SUV onto the ark, and load up with food. You need food so full of preservatives that it can last for years without going off - I suggest McDonalds hamburgers. Don’t worry if you are a vegan - it is a little-known fact that McDonald’s hamburgers don’t actually have any ham in them. In fact, research shows that the only part of the burger that contains any non-vegan ingredients is in fact the tomato, and this can be easily removed.
Now you are going to sail your ark to Chile. Yes, Chile. Off the coast of Chile, there is an island called Easter Island, whose inhabitants died out after cutting down all the trees, and putting all their effort into carving and transporting absurdly large stone statues.
You are going to park your SUV under the chin of one of these statues, then encase it in a hermetically sealed glass box, to allow it to stand forever as a monument to the absurd waste that goes into building large SUVs that are capable of travelling at 3 times the legal speed limit, and the parallels between this enterprise and the Easter-Island Statue-Building enterprise.
Then you will remove all the potentially polluting cargo from your ark, and shipwreck the ark on the rocks of Easter Island, to signify what will happen to poor people in the third world if rich countries keep buying up all the food to make biofuels. And you will put a plaque on your ark, to explain this. And the plaque will be in Chinese, because non-alphabetic writing systems like Chinese evolve much more slowly than systems like English writing, which changes over the millenia as the spoken language changes.
And then you will wait for someone to rescue you, and take you back to San Francisco. And then you will sell your story to a magazine - one of those magazines that focuses on profligate stuff for extremely rich people. For they will like this story, and they will promote it to a small number of very rich people who will see that it is good. Amen.
TJP added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 6:51 pmYou are a moron. You’ll WASTE a car, to protest… wasteful consumerism?
If you want to change your life, or don’t want it anymore or whatever, then thats great. And if you don’t want to perpetuate the cycle by selling it, then thats great too. But destroying it will have the precise opposite effect of what you claim to be seeking.
Give it to a charity auction, where its sale can do some actual good. Donate it to a hospital in Africa, where it can be used in the bush to save lives. Give it to an inner city automotive school, where they’d never have a chance to work on technology like that, and can come away with real skills. There are a hundred things that you can do better than destroying it, which will really, actually help the world.
But of course, it won’t cause the spectacle of an exploding Range Rover, and give you all of the e-fame which you so obviously, desperately seek.
So don’t sit there and tell us about how you want to save the world with your mindless stunt. All you want is for people to pay attention to you, which, ironically makes you no different than most people who buy cars like this.
Arse Bandistroke added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 11:15 pmBlow that shit up bitch. End of Story.
Phil added these pithy words on Jul 25, 08 at 11:45 pmSend it to the troops… I guarantee the Hummers they use get worse mpg than this thing… Of course it wouldnt be to drive into battle with… but possibly an alternative to an in camp transportation… or have them roll it down the middle of a street with a huge bullseye painted on top of it.
falanku added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 9:38 amI wana see it being destroyed!
salmon added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 11:10 amTJP, did you read any of this post? Maybe the part where he says
“And by the way, I am fully aware that blowing the Rover up or launching it into the Pacific Ocean would be environmentally unconscionable. That’s why I’m asking all of you to help me.”You, my friend, are the moron.
Sergey added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 11:17 amTJP,
It’s a shame that you felt the need to insult the project. Destroying the car is just one possibility, but your suggestions can just as easily be voted on and chosen. I think this project has potential and your negative response is premature.
DDM added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 11:23 amDonate it to a local tech school (smallest carbon footprint) with the stipulation it only be used for teaching future techs how repair vehicles. There is a shortage of automotive techs in this world and even electric cars will need to be repaired.
Jeff Zekas added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 11:38 amReduce, reuse, recycle.
(See my comments in the main section)
Regards,
Jeff “Muir” Zekas
Timothy Webster added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 12:27 pmNo TJP,
What is being shown here is that cars really don’t have much value except for vanity.
1) What are you saving the car for? Which is more valuable people or cars? Cities are built for people. Parking lots are built for cars. Are you not more important than your car?
Stepping back a little and looking at the bigger picture. America needs to change and FAST!!!!
Compact efficient cities only have room for only a few people to drive. People need to live close to good public transportation that will rapidly take them to centers of activity. People require a place to relax and enjoy nature. And no one wants to live in a bad neighbourhood. Redeveloping is more than just replacing old buildings. It is creating compact efficient interconnected communities. For urban development to be successful, cities needs to be built with people in mind.
Seth added these pithy words on Jul 26, 08 at 9:38 pmI really think you are wasting rescources that have all ready been invested into the car itself, and whatever your decide to do to it throw it in the ocean? I am pretty sure that will harm whatever is living their. That being said I think you should donate the car or salvage it if anything instead of destroy it. My dream car of course hopefully will be able to get a 2003 range rover hse of my own this summer.
Jhon added these pithy words on Jul 27, 08 at 8:57 am1. Park it with a “Removed from service, for the benefit of civilization” sign in the window like a typical “For Sale” sign but instead of a contact phone number, list the onefewer web address. You might find an entire community of people willing to “loan” parking space in high traffic areas which might lead to keeping the story alive in the media. Whatever you end up doing with the machine, it would be worth extra points if it became an evolving story with a future.
2. Hold a ceremony where the engine and other high value metals and other parts are disassembled for recycling. Then donate the sparkling shell for use as a playhouse, treehouse or even a Sauna at some location where they agree to keep the story alive.
3. Make a sculpture out of it. Perhaps a brick wall built to girdle the front 1/3, or the front wheel area, as if the machine was driven into the wall without damage but that it was also arrested within it. It might be a useful metaphor for consumer expectations that nothing in the world-as-we-know-it would disrupt our ways but then, something beyond our usual understanding of how things are supposed to work completely discombobulated everything.
Pedro Alberto added these pithy words on Jul 27, 08 at 12:56 pmIf you are going to destroy that REALLY EXPENSIVE SUV for no reason I can see logical… you should at least give it to charity… Being a internet superstar is great to tell you friends but to help those who really need, it doesen´t have a price.
Pedro Alberto
Geoff added these pithy words on Jul 27, 08 at 2:26 pmDonate it to a high school for students to make it environmentally friendly (maybe create an electric, fuel cell etc)
I would suggest that they subit their best ideas and that a panel of judges select the best. I also suggest that there be a nominal $5 “entry fee” to ensure they are serious ad that will be donated to the school that wins to help finance their idea.
An idea like this will get students thinking about THEIR future and what TEHY can do about it. Yes, some major companies will be uncomfortable if a froup of students do something that they could have done years ago but they need a kick to make them change more rapidly than they are going. This could do it! Have faith in the creativity of our youth!
alez added these pithy words on Jul 27, 08 at 6:41 pmIf you really want to do some donate it to a uti or something so you can give some people an education.Blowing up the car will just make more carbon-dioxide and then if you throw it into the ocean the force of the impact will kill the fish.
raul added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 3:00 amyou…i don’t now how to call you… you just want attention.give it to charity if want to do a good thing…by the way..MAKING a prius, long time term it’s more “ungreen” than driving a beautiful range rover. maybe you bought it because it’s cool to have one and now you don’t want it because it’s cool to be “green”. you….Fantomas
raul added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 3:02 amgive it to me and you will make me more famous than you.
henrik added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 3:16 amConvertit in to E85, if you have it in the Usa a dont know bat it is good for the natur. the end produkt of driving this is vatter
have a good day. “sweden”
Lynita added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 3:31 amPeople who don’t read the whole story really chap my ass.
Sigh. I have an idea, throw the MAKERS of any huge gas-guzzling monster into the lake. That’s a bigger benefit to mankind than taking one SUV off the road.
Seriously though I think Jhon has the best ideas.
Eugene added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 7:11 amYou can like put decals with your websites logo on it and protest all these SUV’s and stuff. Maybe then after you get some media attention you can auction off the Rover and send money to some “green” organizations that battle pollution and simular stuff.
julie s. added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 10:38 amChop it up into tiny Matchbox-sized toy replicas of hydrogen-powered hovercraft. Launch an international distribution campaign, thereby erasing the memory of urban gas-guzzlers from the minds of children worldwide.
Stanislav Grasso added these pithy words on Jul 28, 08 at 11:26 amOk.How about this, just give it to some college/university student like me.LOL I will safe an environment by not driving some pos (sorry) and polluting the air.ha?i am amaized by how some people don’t value simple things…
Aaron Poehler added these pithy words on Jul 29, 08 at 1:47 pmWhy the therapy sessions? Surely you can’t take things people say on the internet seriously.
admin added these pithy words on Jul 29, 08 at 4:01 pm@Aaron, thanks for the kind words.
Daniel Wilhelm added these pithy words on Aug 04, 08 at 3:58 pmHi!
Im from Germany und all our cars here have best filtation, better than in the US. The best way you can do is to send this car to my country and I will install hydrogen engine in the car and put this best filtration in your car and you can give this car to me.Hydrogen is clean fuel and is cheap. Im just a student. But I think that you want to destroy this car but why? I know that americans like to destroy or blow up something but why you have to do it? Please think about It!
