A young man in a mask crouches beside the rear wheel of a Mercedes G-Class, plays with the valve, inserts a single dried bean into the lid, and pushes it down. A few seconds later, as the air flows, he walks away indifferently from the scene.
He is part of a new generation of activists, who call themselves tire fire extinguishers, who are facing the climate change of one bean at a time.
The G-Class, or G-Wagon, which is 6 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 2 ½ tons and is only 26 miles per gallon of diesel, is the bravest of the SUVs. Even here, at midnight in Hampstead, where the streets are full of Range Rover, Land Rover Discoverys, Audi Q8 and BMW X5,