SUVs conquered the world – at the expense of its climate

> You don’t need them to run to the store to buy a gallon of milk.

No, you don't, but you're not going to go buy and maintain a Civic for the edge cases where the Explorer you're still paying down is overkill. Walking/cycling is just not an option in most of America's non-urban centers-- the distances and conditions involved are what drove the invention of vehicles in the first place.

Most SUVs today are glorified station wagons, built on car platforms. The most popular SUV in America is the Ford Explorer and it hasn't been a truck for almost a decade. How are these any different than minivans? Comparing this type of vehicle to the truck based SUV in the 1990s is dumb. Cars (and light trucks) are far more fuel efficient today than 25 years ago.