Activists “Mung Bean” 4x4s

22 March 2008
Activists in Edin­burgh claim respon­si­bil­i­ty for ‘dis­arm­ing’ ten 4x4s over the last two months, stat­ing that they are fight­ing cli­mate change.
The sabo­teurs say they have tar­get­ed the 4x4s to raise aware­ness about these high­ly fuel inef­fi­cient vehi­cles and the dis­as­trous effects they have upon our cli­mate, and more gen­er­al­ly about the rela­tion­ship between wealth and cli­mate change.

They are using mung beans to deflate the tyres of 4x4s by unscrew­ing the dust cap that pro­tects the valve of the tire, plac­ing a mung bean in the cap, and replac­ing the cap, which depress­es the valve, deflat­ing the tyre. Activists then place a let­ter explain­ing their actions on the wind­screen.

The activists say that they plan to esca­late their dis­arm­ing of SUVs, say­ing “we hope these actions will increase in num­ber, from a slight annoy­ance into a real obsta­cle, putting an end to this pol­lut­ing vehi­cles pop­u­lar­i­ty”.

They say that they are inspired by the Swedish group, the Indi­ans of the Con­crete Jun­gle, who have appar­ent­ly pro­voked much anger from SUV own­ers.

Over a thou­sand 4x4s are report­ed to have been dis­armed in Swe­den, and three peo­ple have been caught by police.

See the web­site of the Indi­ans of the Con­crete Jun­gle for more infor­ma­tion on the Swedish group:
asfaltsdjungelnsindianer.wordpress.com/in-english/