Would rationing oil/gasoline, electricity, etc help the environment and save the planet?

Question

In what ways would rationing help or hinder us? I for one, would miss all my hours on the computer/laptop etc as I do all my work and everything else on it, but would it really hurt me if I was rationed on the amount of energy I was allowed to use? I don't think so. Let me know what you think of rationing and could you self ration without being told you had to do it?

Answer 1

EMUCOMPBOY has it right. If the population growth is not stopped, and preferably the population somewhat reduced, any efforts at solving environmental problems will not solve the problems, only slow the negative aspects. If water usage, for example, is cut in half, but the population doubles each generation, cutting water usage per person in half will still result in a doubling of the problem in 3 generations.

Answer 2

Your question depends on how much we ration, and what kind of energy we are using. At present, it would be necessary to reduce global fossil fuel use to 70% of pre 1990's use levels to get greenhouse gases to twice the concentration they were before we started burning fossil fuels for energy by 2050. Even that would not be enough to "save the planet", because twice the level of greenhouse gas would still mean a planet without ice at the poles, and that alone would be a change that civilization might not survive. So, in a nut-shell, there isn't any point in rationing fossil fuels, since every bit we use is making things worse. It is more than likely that if we stop using all fossil fuels globally today (which by itself would devastate civilization) it would not be sufficient to reverse the effects we have already set in motion. Those effects are so ecosystem changing that it won't matter anyway.
We need 2 things 1) a way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas we've already put in the atmosphere, and 2) a new source of energy besides fossil fuels

Answer 3

The first problem I see with rationing is one simple word: GREED. I don't believe that people would 'take it lightly' to change their daily habits. A lot of business would slow down drastically, if not completely.

Airline tickets would be much more expensive because there would only be a certain amount of flights. The price of delivered items (pizza, flowers, furniture, etc) would go up. The whole standard of living would increase.

Electricity - actually it's pretty efficient when it comes to hydro-electric damns - that's just the pure power of water, stored in a generator - I don't see any problems with that or any reason to ration that type of electricity.

One thing I do see that needs to be NOW would be the factories that spew out billions of gallons of pollution each year. It's really sad that things are coming to this. Think about it - all the 'technology' we have now hasn't even been around for 100 years... see how fast we depleted our planet in less than a 100 years?? Imagine what it's going to be like just 50 years from now. It's scary to think about...

We need to come up with a solution quick - or else we will use up all our natural resources and eventually 'die off'... it is our natural order as humans to destroy ourselves.

Answer 4

No, but it would be a boon to the black market that is struggling to keep it's head above water since the repeal of prohibition, nothing is new under the sun, what we have here is a ploy to extract the maximum profit from fear and jealousy, and as far as I can tell it is working as planned. The "other people" are going to exploit any method to keep the status quo!
Electric cars don't have the milage that the public wants!
That technology is years away from the maarket place!
Solar energy is a pipe dream!
Multi - tiered Internet access!
$5000 dollars off the 2006 behemouth 2000, and free gass 'till 1984!
It's all BS, Madison Avenue BS desighn to make us think it's as bad as it can get, Give the CEO another 26 million dollar severance package and get the next one a jet liner to fly back and forth on to Paris for lunch an' a BJ!!!!

God help us WE HAS MET THE ENEMY, 'AN THEY IS US!
One more thing, if we spent 1/200 of the money on alternatives that we are spending on GW's Daddy's holy war, we wouldn't need to be there and we could tell them all to kiss our big fat A$%%ES.

Answer 5

It would not save the planet because the planet is not in danger - people and animal and plant life as we know it may be extinct in 5,000 years when the next ice age (an average cooling of only 5 degrees) is here. But the planet will be fine - just as it has been for the last 10 cycles of warming and cooling before we were here.

Answer 6

No, it would just allow the rich people to use more of it (I gaurentee that even with rations, there would be a clause stating someone could buy extra amounts for more money).
Even if there wasn't such a clause, people would start making their own generators...and rationing would only affect the countries that impose it (and not all of them will)....

Answer 7

We should never go to rationing of any forms of energy. Why can we eliminate all the oil and gas usage totally? They are dirty and dangerous as well. We have a supply of free energy from our sun and also this free supply of energy can last the life time of the earth. All of us should spend more time and effort to make ways to collect this free and clean energy instead of sending troops to fight for that dirty and deadly oil.

Answer 8

No.
We've had water rationing in Los Angeles. It didn't help the environment because more people moved to Los Angeles, thus keeping the total water use increasing!

Only a population decrease will help.

Answer 9

I have thought about that sort of thing a lot. Like if there was a massive solar flare and the whole world blacked out. if you live in a rural area, you probably have no problem, but people in the city are screwed. Luckily, I live on the border of a state forest, and we still have a pantry full of Y2K stockpiles.

Answer 10

I DON'T THINK RATIONING WILL HELP. WE HAVE TO FIND A BETTER AND NOT SO COSTLY SOURCE OF ENERGY. ONE THAT WILL NEITHER AFFECT US IN THE LONG RUN OR THE SHORT RUN. SOONER OR LATER WE WILL HAVE MINED THE PLANET OUT OF ALL ITS OIL AND CAUSE A DISRUPTION IN IT. SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER UNLESS WE FIND A BETTER SOURCE OF ENERGY.