If we had rings, wouldn’t that imply that we don’t have a large moon? Saturn has moons, of course, but nothing as proportionately large as Luna. I believe Isaac Asimov wrote an essay on the importance of the moon; if I recall correctly, he suggested that the absence of lunar tides would mean that the animals might never have colonized land, and I think he had some other bad consequences as well.
Several years ago, someone here on The Dope linked to a website where a photographer/artist had created this absolutely beautiful pics of what the view would be like from various localities around the globe if Earth had rings. View from Quito: thin line from one horizon to the other. View from Oslo: thick line near the horizon (IIRC). It was incredible!
Check out the link in Cosmic Relief’s post, #4 in this thread.
Oops. :smack:
And with the new Roche Limit Offenders and Crimes Against Astrophysics Act of 2011, planets that get close enough either get broken up or have to have their picture, size, and composition put up on Astronomy Today.