This is just insane. Not only are cars themself mostly unnecessary, if the right infrastructure is provided, but SUVs also use more resources to run and be produced then small cars, without any advantage over them. So an obvious waste, which could easily be cut to reduce emissions.
Source IEA: https://www.iea.org/commentaries/suvs-are-setting-new-sales-records-each-year-and-so-are-their-emissions
Say you remove SUVs from the other countries’ calculations. That would make SUVs look even worse.
Or perhaps you begin arbitrarily counting other things twice in your calculations. Then they look better.
My point isn’t that item X doesn’t pollute, just that the graph in question is less useful in it’s nature and aimed at being alarmist.
Examples?
I was responding to this comment. If you remove the SUVs’ calculations from other bars then the others get smaller relative to SUVs and make SUVs look worse.
They either kept SUVs in or they didn’t. If they kept them in (counted twice) It makes SUVs look less polluting (see above). If they didn’t count them twice then it would be more accurate and make SUVs look more polluting.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether they counted SUVs twice or not because it doesnt make their calculations “look better”.
I don’t see it as alarmist at all. Rather, it’s demonstrating how much emissions come from SUVs. As seen by other comments on this post, it sparks dialogue about less carbon intensive alternatives to SUVs which are exceedingly common.
The fact that we all have to guess how this graph allocated everything speaks to it’s accuracy and usefulness. That was my point. I could create a graph, providing no context to show that SUVs were low polluters. We all believe that to not be the case but my graph could very well be as accurate as this one. We simply can’t tell.
When something like this is shared on a social network without something showing how the conclusion was made, the first instinct should be disbelief