A similar question has been asked before
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiaOW.3DYHCpO1tIG1W_38YjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080604151344AAaAudZ),
but I was wondering if there are any statistics out there that might prove this one way or another. Consider if everyone replaced only their personal cars with horses (excluding trucks, emergency vehicles, etc). There would be a lot less gasoline consumed, but a lot more food consumed and poop produced. However, producing food may be less environmentally destructive than drilling for oil or mining coal to generate power for electric cars. Cars produce CO2, but horses produce both CO2 and methane (but I am not sure how much compared to cars). We would also need a lot of new infrastructure such as horse-lanes on roads, stables, etc. However, more jobs would be created because horses typically require more maintenance. Trips would take longer, and you'd be able to carry less stuff per horse, but they'd likely be much more pleasant. Taking all of this into account, would there be a significant environmental benefit?
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiaOW.3DYHCpO1tIG1W_38YjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080604151344AAaAudZ),
but I was wondering if there are any statistics out there that might prove this one way or another. Consider if everyone replaced only their personal cars with horses (excluding trucks, emergency vehicles, etc). There would be a lot less gasoline consumed, but a lot more food consumed and poop produced. However, producing food may be less environmentally destructive than drilling for oil or mining coal to generate power for electric cars. Cars produce CO2, but horses produce both CO2 and methane (but I am not sure how much compared to cars). We would also need a lot of new infrastructure such as horse-lanes on roads, stables, etc. However, more jobs would be created because horses typically require more maintenance. Trips would take longer, and you'd be able to carry less stuff per horse, but they'd likely be much more pleasant. Taking all of this into account, would there be a significant environmental benefit?