Do you think people could go back to using horses to reduce oil usage?

Question

I had a thought today that we some of us could go back to using horses for driving about town and just use cars for when we need to drive further. I know this would not work in large cities and not everyone has the room for them but wouldn't it signifigantly help w/ polution and our reliance on oil? The Amish still do it. How would we go about making the change? It would require city involvement for p**p clean up and having ties for the horses. What problems would you forsee?

Answer 1

No.

1. It requires to much time and space and money to care for a horse.

2. It would become a health hazard, with all the waste.

In Holland and other parts of Europe, cities included, there are bicycle paths on either side of all roadways and a HUGH percentage of the population use bikes and Mopeds as their primary source of transportation (vehicles are to expensive to own, monthly taxes based on the size, maintaine, routine oil changes could cost you triple what you pay in the US, and fuel = $5.50 per gal.

Walking for an hour, or distances of 3-5 miles, in wet, cold weather, to get into the local town to work, or to a bus stop is the norm for these people. When you get to old to walk the government will GIVE you a little battery powered wheelchair/scooter to get around on. Hence the high taxes.

Funny, I did not see to many people with weight problems while in Europe.

But I don't see to many people riding a bike or walking to work in the good old USA.

Face it we are a spoiled country. But we do it by choice.

We currently still have the ability to choose, lets hope it stays that way.

Answer 2

On a small scale in rural areas, it could work.  Not sure about how much pollution would be curbed though.

Answer 3

Amusing though, but I don't see that ever happening. It takes as much money to feed a horse as to maintain a car. You need a barn, water, food, medicine, and of course that's not considering the price you'll need to pay on the actual horse.

And then there's cleanup.

Cute idea, but entirely impractical as people are a bit lazy.

Plus, where will you plug your iPOD in? XD

Answer 4

You could, but what would be the point, other than switching from one product that pollutes, to another?  The problem is that you have bought into the man made global warming hype.  Yes, I said hype, because that is all it is.  The world is getting warmer, but it is a natural cycle of the earth.  Back to your original question, though.  First, environmentalist are always complaining about cattle, because they say that the methane produced by their digestive tracts is horrible for our atmosphere.  If that is actually adding to global warming, we will have the same problems with horses, because the amount needed are going to be close to the amount of auto's we have.  Second, you have to realize that since we have all these horses, we now need somewhere to put them when it is cold, wet and snowy.  This means hundreds, upon hundreds of barns are going to need to be built.  We can't use wood for this, because the environmentalist tell us that this would be bad also.  They say that carbon is stored in trees and when they are cut, it releases that carbon.  If this is the case, almost every family will have to build some type of building out of concrete or brick, which takes energy to produce.  Then you have to get those bricks shipped in, which is more pollution.  Third, we have to feed all these animals.  The price of gain and similar products are going to go through the roof, just as it has started to do with corn.  Plus when you grow that grain and then cut it you are releasing carbon back into the atmosphere again.  After all, a small plant works like a tree because it stores carbon.  That is what they breathe, so to speak.  Fourth, you are going to have to consider, that when compared to other nations, everything we do will have slowed down to a snails pace.  We Americans import alot of stuff.  With our population and how it is spread out, food stuffs will take a month to travel across the country, yet we will still need it to because we have people living in the land locked Midwest.  You have to figure out how to work around that.  Although, your idea seems nice on the surface, it won't work.  What you have to realize is that if global warming is caused by man, and I have not been convinced it has, nothing we can do will stop it.  We can only slow it down, unless we create a totally new, cheap, efficient, alternative source of power, that can be used in every aspect of our daily lives.  Instead of wasting all this money getting rid of auto's by switching to horses, wouldn't it be better to invest it in seeking a clean energy source?  If the government would devote as much money to finding a new energy source, as it has for the war in Iraq, we would have a new energy source within a few years.  As you can see, they have other priorities.

Answer 5

yeah i doubt it :/ ....

Answer 6

No one is going to give up the freedoms that driving brings. We have a Chance to travel to another place to get better health care or to experience culture. We love improvements and going back is not an improvement.

Answer 7

yeah, thats an intelligent idea. People dressed for work, in the winter, rain, snow, heat etc riding horses down interstates. Do they have bigger horses to bring the kids along? Do these horses have AM/FM stereo? How about the mall, supermarket etc. ? Do we have big lots full of hitching posts? I assume we can go back to hanging horse thieves?

There is a reason we don't use horses for daily travel anymore. Come back to earth, please. Do you actually think about things before you ask them or do you usually just shoot off with incredibly silly and impractical ideas?

Answer 8

You realize of course, that horses produce methane gas a much greater greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So we would need at least 150 million horses to replace the cars with all of their mess and methane. No I don't think that's a very good idea at all.

Answer 9

Nostalgic thought, but why don't we just drill offshore and in Alaska for oil and keep driving our cars with our own cheap gasoline.

Answer 10

I could forsee that people would abuse the animals.. and also might steal them. but it would be nice instead of cars,

Answer 11

Why not?

When we are all moving backwards in time.

Some were already ahead of us.

With living examples in Afghanistan, Iraq and the middle-east.

Were living in caves like cave-men too.

Soon we all will be back with the "Wild,wild West"

So who care about the oil.

Luke 9.55-56

In time we all  have to start all over again with " Little house on the prairie"

With all the great American dreams of puff the magic dragon poof into smokes and ashes in time.

Luke 6.39-40,41-45,46-49

What do you think?

Answer 12

Can you make plastics from horses too?

Answer 13

wouldnt work... I mean sure... we could get around in them, but you see... one of the reasons your asking this question is in reguards to Greenhouse Gas Emissions from our automobiles right?  Not only do we stop using oil, but we save the environment by cutting back on CO2.  Nice thought though.  But you see... Replaceing 250million automobliles with 250million horses causes the same problem!  Horses eat (among other things) Hay.  And hay creates Flatulence... uh... Horse Farts.  Farts are Primarily Methane. Methane is a Greenhouse Gas as well.

So youre only replacing one problem with another.

Answer 14

In old photographs, they often edited out the horse droppings in the street.     When women wore dresses to the floor, it must have been a problem to keep them clean.    

Obviously, that wouldn't work in large cities with apartment dwellers.     I understand that WalMart has installed horse sheds and special parking for the Amish in those communities.

There are a few  problems.   Someone asked several months ago about insurance with horses and horse and buggies.   1. You'd have to have insurance on a horse and buggy.  

2.  Price of hay has become astronomical since gas went up so much.     Horses like that wild, prairie hay.    You can't plant that, it's either on your property or not.     Hay is largely baled in those big round bales that weight a couple of hundred pounds.  You need a tractor and a special attachment that spears the bale to move it.      

3.   Green house gases.   Someone will complain about that, I'm sure.  

4.   Shear lack of availability of horses, buggies, tack, etc. to meet demand.

I travel to the MidWest a couple of times a year and in southern Mo. there is an Amish community and you'll see them drive on the shoulder.   That's a little dangerous when big trucks are passing them at 70mph.    Also, my cousin who lives in Penn. says horses and buggies are hard on the pavement.  

The United States is so spread out that in many places, even in the city, public transportation is lacking or just not there.    In Atlanta, there is MARTA which runs the railway train system for the city.  But, that only hits the major points.      In the outer areas, you can't even be within walking distance of a bus.

The train system in this country has degraded to such a point that even if you can find a city where AmTrack runs, it might just make that run once or twice a week and not daily.

There was a story about a man who was doing what you suggest and using a horse and buggy.   They had him arrested for animal cruelity because he'd left his horse hitched up to a buggy while going into a store.    

Good thought, though.

Answer 15

Large animals emit large amounts of Methane, a greenhouse gas.

The same people who are complaining about global warming due to emissions from gas tanks would be complaining about the increase in horse population and the attendant increase in methane production. This would be in addition to the p**p which was littering our streets.

There is nothing we can do which will not cause these people to find some new thing to complain about.  It's what they do.

The only possible solution is to make ourselves extinct, then the world would be unmolested for the rest of eternity.

Answer 16

Petrol is quiet expensive, but we need cars for our fast lives, it might work to visit near friends or relatives.