Governments should re-introduce rationing schemes on goods such as meat, clothing, and fossil feuls in order to mitigate the supposed dangers of climate change, researchers at a top British univiersity have demanded.
Acadamics at the University of Leeds have called for World War II-style government rationing in order to fight climate change, arguing that green agenda taxes are levied in a “slow and inequitable” manner and therefore the policy of rationing has been wrongly “neglected as a climate change mitigation policy option.”
The study, which appeared in the Ethics, Policy & Environment journal, said: “Rationing is often seen as unattractive, and therefore not a viable option for policy-makers. It is important to highlight the fact that this was not the case for many of those who had experienced rationing. It is important to emphasise the difference between rationing itself and the scarcity that rationing was a response to. Of course, people did welcome the end of rationing, but they were really celebrating the end of scarcity, and celebrating the fact that rationing was no longer necessary.”
The researchers went on to explain that governments could specifically ration “selected goods, such as flights, petrol, household energy, or even meat or clothing” and that limits could be placed on the amount of petrol an individual can use per month and the number of flights per year.
Dr Nathan Wood, the co-lead author of the study, said: “The concept of rationing could help, not only in the mitigation of climate change, but also in reference to a variety of other social and political issues — such as the current energy crisis.”
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