Should we tax &/or ban some sports to reduce air pollution and save the planet?

Question

I'm thinking of sports like motor racing, racing about on quad bikes, water scooters, trail bikes etc - all those sports which involve burning fossil fuels, not to mention creating a lot of noise pollution too.

Answer 1

I don't want to see the government ban anything. As a Jew, I know where that leads. First thing you know, we'll be lining up for cyanide showers. But I'm with ya on eliminating fossil fuels, and I've got one word for ya: methane. It's cheap, it's clean (25% less carbon dioxide than gasoline) and it's made from s-h-i-t, so we've got an endless, renewable supply. Even better, the cars we have now can easily be converted to run on it. Everybody who was in Australia during World War II has told me the same thing my dad did. All the cars ran on methane, because the Japs controlled the sea lanes and they couldn't get any oil in. One of my students recently informed me that they've had methane powered cars in Europe for over a decade. Italy alone has nearly half a million of them! So why don't we have any? Cynic that I am, I think it's because Europe doesn't have any domestic oil production to protect. Methane will not only free us from the tyranny of foreign oil producers, but domestic ones as well! In addition, we have farmers growing corn for ethanol to add to gasoline. So much is being used for that purpose now that the price of corn has doubled in just the last year. The farmers think it's great, and won't want to give up the market, even though the rest of us are going to get hosed because the price increase is going to effect meat (most animals feeds are primarily corn) cereal, and lots of other foodstuffs we take for granted. Methane will pop that bubble in a heartbeat. Better still, there's no significant loss of horsepower with methane. In Europe, the methane version of the Volvo 850 cranks out 140 hp. Pretty respectable, considering the fact that even gasoline powered Volvos aren't race cars. Rather than taxing/banning sports, we need to raise HELL with out government and get methane on the market right here and right now! We could all reduce our "carbon footprints" 25 % virtually overnight, not over 15 or 20 years like our government is talking about doing -- maybe. If you're Green, ya gotta love methane. It's some really good ****!

Answer 2

It's not so much the pollution some of these sports produce but the damage on the local environment. Quad bikes for example or trail bikes...have you seen the devastation they have on forests and grounds?

Answer 3

I am old enough to remember gas rationing in world war 2 and it wasn't pretty. Keep the government out of our business. STOP trying to make a law against everything that u don't want. It will return to bite u. U need to take your child to the DR. and cant because u don't have the gas. U are already paying more for the gas than u should for the environment. We are already had our electric bill double .

Answer 4

Following the same line of thinking we should ban cars, most ships and aeroplanes ;) I don't have data but I'd guess the pollution these sports produce is insignificant compared to, say, the production by New York on a good traffic-jammy day.

Answer 5

Well, IndyCar has already gone ethanol this year, which is carbon neutral.

See... http://www.paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=44650

If it's successful, I would imagine that all other motorsport will go the same way.

Whether we'll be able to change all our cars to run on ethanol is debatable, for the reasons that 'Texasjewboy12' mentioned - i.e. I wonder whether we could grow enough corn to supply enough ethanol for every car on the planet.

Eventually, fossil fuels will run out, so we'll *have* to do something like this.

Answer 6

I'd like to give attention to your question but i'm too busy planning a trip to New Zealand, 49140Km of air travel, shite how much fuel will that burn up? Not to mention the 4,000 miles of car driving in a huge 4WD, I'd try and carbon neutralise that holiday but I dont really give a shite.

Answer 7

All sports and forms of recreation should be banned. We should be allowed to do nothing but work, work, work. Anything else is merely wasted effort and distraction.

Answer 8

Yessir!!!! I think that we're polluting the earth so much already! Why pollute it even more by playing sports?! I think we should tax instead of ban because those sports are really enjoyable!