By Dan Estabrook – July 25, 2008 (TNN)
Ryan Mickle is on a one-man crusade to make a difference. He is ready to remove his $60,000 2-year-old Range Rover Sport from the road — permanently. Wanting to take a stronger stance on climate change, Ryan decided that he wanted to make a point to people about buying unnecessary cars. Moving to San Francisco, where Ryan now lives and works, made his car even less needed. He started One Fewer to solict ideas from readers about the best way to dispose of his S.U.V.
The goal, says Mickle, is to take the Rover “off the road forever however the world wants to and to engage a conversation about the fate of the Range Rover itself and the ass-kicking changes we can make in our lives beyond travel mugs and canvas grocery bags.”
Mickle says his idea is based on crowdsourcing — according to Wired, crowdsourcing “relies on individual contributions from an undefined group that collectively helps an individual or organization reach a decision or accomplish a task.” And ideas are flowing in.
While Mickle jokes on his site about blowing up the Land Rover or catapulting it into the Pacific, he does seek an environmentally conscious solution. He has also received hundreds of comments and emails ranging from suggestions to anger. Mickle told me about the most noteworthy idea thus far from commenter AJ: “In my opinion you should use this vehicle to show how a gas guzzling SUV can be converted into a eco-friendly SUV.”
Mickle told me: “Lots of people took it the wrong way and are going nuts about how bad for the environment it would be to launch it into the ocean or blow it up. Of course, lots of people are pretty excited about actually blowing it up, blending it, or crushing into a cube.”
He went on to tell me that he suggested blowing it up to make a point — that he is open to any and all options, but that his “hope is that we can find an approach that is both environmentally conscious and awareness-raising. My SUV, our cars, and our Nintendo Wiis, plasma TVs, etc. are now different — they’ll break down and have to be retired, but we never worry about that aspect.”
He wishes that Ford and GM would get in the business of retrofitting our vehicles to be more efficient and to last longer. “The last thing we all need to do is go out and buy new, more efficient cars like Priuses while overlooking the fate of the cars we have today.”
I asked him if he could also get rid of my own Toyota 4Runner. “Send it to me – the more SUVs the better. Honestly though, I’m doing this to do the right thing. The selfish act was buying it years ago. The selfless act, I believe, is to make sure that I do the environmentally conscious thing with it.”
People have even suggested that Mickle give them or a charity the car.
“What they don’t realize,” Mickle says, “is that it’s about doing something bigger than ourselves. I wish people would send me more emails about what they plan to do that is bigger than their own interests. It feels great to do something big, something generous for the world.”
You can read more here and check out Mickle’s site here.
What do you think Ryan should do with his Land Rover?
Photo courtesy of Ryan Mickle.