Global Courant
A far-left international group encouraging groups of people to deflate the tires of parked SUVs in an effort to combat global warming has expanded operations to 18 countries.
Dubbed the Tire Extinguishers and based in the UK, the group has taken credit for deflating tires in US cities, including New York City, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, and cities in England, Canada, France, Spain, Germany and Italy among others. And most recently, on Thursday, members affiliated with the Tire Extinguishers carried out an action in Lisbon, Portugal.
“Reports are coming in from very angry #CarShaggers who are angry that they can’t drive their huge tanks around Lisbon. Oh no!” said the group. “Welcome to the fun, Portugal! Now that we’ve had our first action in Lisbon, where’s next?”
The announcement included an image of a Portuguese-language pamphlet left by the activists on one of the targeted SUVs.
CLIMATE ACTIVISTS EXPAND TIRE STRUCTURE BEYOND NYC. HERE ARE THE CITIES THEY HAVE AFFECTED
A climate activist with the tire fire extinguishers is pictured deflating the tire of an SUV in Boston in April. The group said the activists leaked the tires of 43 luxury SUVs in the city. (Tire extinguishers)
The group’s website includes instructions for quickly deflating the tires of parked cars and a template for pamphlets for activists to use during operations. After deflating the tires of an SUV, individuals associated with the group generally leave the document, with the headline “CAUTION – Your Gas Guzzler Kills”, on the windshield of the vehicle, explaining to the owner why the action was taken.
CLIMATE PROMOTER EMPTY BOSTON SUV TIRES EMPTY IN RICH NEIGHBORHOOD, VIEWING RESIDENTS
“You will be angry, but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car,” the pamphlet says. “We did this because driving around urban areas in your huge vehicle has a big impact on others.”
“We are people from all walks of life with one goal: to make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4×4 in the urban areas of the world,” the group’s website adds. “We are defending against climate change, air pollution and unsafe drivers. We are doing this with a simple tactic: deflating the tires of these huge, unnecessary vehicles, causing a nuisance to their owners.”
A pamphlet left by activists with the Tire Extinguishers on SUVs in New York City last year. (Tire extinguishers)
According to the Tire Extinguishers, it has no leadership structure, but is instead a “leaderless, autonomous movement of groups acting independently.”
It says its movement has led to the creation of tire deflating organizations around the world, such as The DundeeFlators in Scotland, Les Degonfleurs in France and SUVVersive in Italy.
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Overall, activists associated with the tire blowers are responsible for deflating the tires of more than 10,000 SUVs. On a single night last November, the group boasted that its members had “disarmed” more than 900 SUVs in a coordinated action across multiple cities in the US and Europe.
“This is the largest coordinated global action against high-carbon vehicles in history, and many more will follow,” it said at the time.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
