All the more reason to drive a zuk and not a tank  http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/14518_dust.html

"When SUV vehicles drive on the sand, the sandy surface does not recover completely from weight and wheels."

What the hell... it's sand? Why does it need to 'recover' from the weight of a vehicle driving over it?

Bitch, Bitch, moan, moan
Tell them to get a life
You can please some of the people some of the time
But
You can't please all the people all the time
So
Waaaaaaaaaaa
But thats my theory

Are you kidding? Doesn't the dust storms kick up a little more dust then the suvs? Or perhaps the heards of animals in the desert. Fuckin tree huggers are RETARDED

According to that logic, we've already done irrepairable damage to the moon

Doesn't this dust come down again or is there no gravity behind a 4x4  

I like how the eco-freak starts off talking about how SUV's are causing damage BUT it's tank tracks from WW2 that can still be found

And the fact that he points out that the SUV population is growing in SW USA and the middle east, BUT, the increased dust storms are in North Africa

Bashing on SUV's in a science journal with completely unrelated data but worded to make it sound like it's the SUV's fault

ECO-FREAKS SUCK!!!!!!!!!!

Zig

Just like it was probably the greenies
that crapped all over the Rubicon Trail
and got it closed down for high levels
of human waste  

They take the stance that nothing is
too radical or off limits if they can save
one Spotted Owl or get 4X4s kicked out
of an area, even if it involves illegal activities
like spikes/nails in the trails and polluting
areas so it looks like the 4 wheelers did it
Eco-Freak B|removethispart|@$+|removethispart|@&d$  

What about farmers??

Maby we should stop eating.  That's a lot of dust when they plow the fields.

I say we all go poop on the highways. just for fun

That's a lame article.  What wind and rain don't erase tracks after a while?

According to that logic, we've already done irrepairable damage to the moon  

Yeah, there are some great crater runs on the moon! I'm heading back up as soon as I fix my gravity well projector and my flux capacitor

steveo

Settle down a little.  The Greenies aren't 'protecting' the outdoors any less then the NRA is 'protecting' gun rights.  Besides, this is just some scientist announcing what he has found.  It's like a press release and just as believable.

The WWII Tank comment is to show an example that some area's simply don't rebound.

This is not all area's, just some.  Sort of like how your not supposed to step off the trail in Moab.  It takes over 50 years for plant life to be able to try and grab a spot, and a second with a careless foot to destroy it.

It's a discovery, not a proof of theory.  He is using sport 4x4 use as an example because it is something everyone can relate to.  It's a bad example, but an example none the less.  

Mongolia is slowly turning into a desert because of overharvesting of plants, there are lots of things that can contribute to the increase of dust.  Like it or not 4x4's may be part of it.  All the more important that we stay on established/marked trails.

The dust clouds increase as the amount of desert increases.  The amount of desert increases due to the destruction of plants that keep the desert in check.  The destruction of the plants happen because of irragation moving the water elsewhere, change of habitat causing animals to move to new areas to find food, people selling the plants as a natural alternative to viagra, vehicles driving around on it, farmers turning it into a field.

And to be fair, we did do permanent damage to the moon.  We just don't care.  But when the Country Club moves into the Sea of Tranquility you bet there will be 'ell to pay for those driving through the groomed view.

These are just my opinions though and could be way off.

I am bothered with statements like this because of the fact that the Greenies constantly make obsurd statements using us as examples making us and our sport look bad. EXACTLY like this article. That's whay it makes me mad. They show up to Foresrty meetings armed with photos of the distruction "we" are doing to an area. Usually they can not even tell you where the picture is taken, and many times the pictures are not even from the area in question. We get this bad image because of them and this article is just another stem of their work.(If not written by them so they can now show up in court with 'exibit a' being a release in a scientific journal showing their point of view)

I have a good question for the scientist. How many 4x4 crossing the desert would stir up enough dust to equal one dust storm that blows across deserts on a regular basis?

Don't get me wrong, I do realize that recless off roading causes damage, but the off-roading I (and the people I wheel with) do causes alot less damage to our enviroment than building a 24' wide asphalt roadway to a hiking trail so all the Greenies can get their road beast SUV's to the trail head.

Zig

I'm all for saving the planet and all, it just they went too fare with 4x4 trucks.

Instead of giving us a place to go play they shut down almost everything.  So now a few people just go anywhere they can and do all the destroying and everyone gets the blame

There are a lot of other sports I can think of that does tons more damage that I ever have, but they have lobiest and keep their sports open.