“Nationally, sales for the H2 fell 21 percent in February, Reuters reported, the sixth straight month of falling sales compared with the previous year.” Perhaps there is an outer limit to American’s appetite for avarice.

The article sadly leaves some assertions unchallenged:

Howard Drake, an owner of the Hummer dealership in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley, said his sales were down in January and February, only because he did not have enough supply.

Every once in a while, he acknowledged, the culture wars seep onto the lots of the dealerships. Mr. Drake said he was approached by a well-known actress, whose name he declined to share.

“She told me she wanted to buy a hybrid, and she was concerned about the Hummer and its effect on the environment,” Mr. Drake recalled. “I asked where she lived. She said Beverly Hills. I said, ‘Out of curiosity: How big is your house?’

“She said: ‘What does that matter? It’s 20,000 square feet.’ ”

He said he replied: “I don’t know what’s less correct. Having three people live in a 20,000-square-foot house, with a pool and heaters and air-conditioners. Or me driving my Hummer 500 miles a month.”

Mr. Drake’s house, he said, is 3,000 square feet.

Giant SUVs are distasteful, dangerous, and deadly for scores of reasons beyond mere energy consumption (although this is not to condone wasteful energy use at home). For instance, the article obliquely mentions safety:

The environmental campaigner Laurie David, the wife of Larry David of the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm, worked herself into a lather not long ago over a Hummer-driving mother in the parking lot of the Crossroads School in Los Angeles. She rolled down her Prius window to share her displeasure. “I said,” Mrs. David recalled, ” ‘Are you crazy to bring this car into this parking lot? Do you understand how dangerous it is to the kids you can’t see?’ She stared at me blankly.”

[found at NYT]