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Because nobody wants to live like Appalachians when they can live like San Franciscans. One is clearly more comfortable.
by durge 9y ago
Because nobody wants to live like Appalachians when they can live like San Franciscans. One is clearly more comfortable.
- linkregister 9y agoDon't city dwellers in general consume less greenhouse gases due to improved density and efficiency?
- durge 9y agoThe improved density and efficienty allows population that necessitates the use of factory farming, petrochemical based fertilizers, massive infrastructure, traffic congestion etc. Per individual the carbon footprint is smaller (until you get to the really rural poor), but overall the effect of this process is more consumption on net. It's just the way it is. If we really wanted to go green, we'd all be on mopeds and have one shirt.
- 0xbear 9y agoAnd we'd also have no kids, because that's an exponential factor when it comes to pollution.
- dragonwriter 9y agoKids are only an exponential factor if you have a constant number per adult each generation.
- 0xbear 9y agoOr if people live longer and longer, which some very smart folks are actively working on.
- linkregister 9y agoYou're making a Malthusian argument. Yes, if you were to kill the city dwellers, then net carbon release would be lower. Given the same amount of humans, however, distributed with rural or suburban densities, you face a dramatic increase in carbon release. Unless humans were to go back to pre-industrial populations, carbon release would be much higher. I think that rural life is more enjoyable than urban life, but feelings don't change the facts. So I'm not sure what you're advocating. It is almost as if you are changing the argument in order to feel as if you won.
- durge 9y agoI'm not advocating anything.