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My first-hand experience with rural living comes from time I spent with an ex's family, who lived in rural Montana, and also conversations with her about growin

by wk_end 3y ago

My first-hand experience with rural living comes from time I spent with an ex's family, who lived in rural Montana, and also conversations with her about growing up there. They drove regularly for all the things I listed and more (I stupidly omitted a, maybe the, big one - driving to work every day). The distances they'd have to drive were enormous, too - the nearest Walmart was 90 miles away, and at least monthly they'd need to make the 200 mile drive to Billings (the nearest major city). Anyway, anecdata aside: Google shows that the states with the highest per capita carbon emissions do tend to be states with lower urbanization rates. Montana, for instance, is the fifth least urbanized state and the sixth highest polluter per capita. https://solarpower.guide/solar-energy-insights/states-ranked-carbon-dioxide-emissions https://solarpower.guide/solar-energy-insights/states-ranked... https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/mapping-us-urbanization-by-state/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/mapping-us-urbanization-...

randomdata 3y ago
> Google shows that the states with the highest per capita carbon emissions do tend to be states with lower urbanization rates. But that's due to industry, no? Agriculture and forestry alone count for ~20% of all carbon emissions. And getting those goods into the urban areas means shipping, which is another major contributor. Even in more populace states, power generation typically happens in rural areas. Landfills are located in rural areas. Even large factories, even when they employ city-based workers, are quite often located in rural areas. On balance, there isn't much that happens in large urban areas other than a whole lot of moving people around with machines (which seems completely ridiculous) and commercial business operations, which is not insignificant with respect to carbon emissions, but only about 6% of total emissions. Basic household living probably isn't much different either way.

by wk_end 3y ago

randomdata 3y ago

> Google shows that the states with the highest per capita carbon emissions do tend to be states with lower urbanization rates. But that's due to industry, no? Agriculture and forestry alone count for ~20% of all carbon emissions. And getting those goods into the urban areas means shipping, which is another major contributor. Even in more populace states, power generation typically happens in rural areas. Landfills are located in rural areas. Even large factories, even when they employ city-based workers, are quite often located in rural areas. On balance, there isn't much that happens in large urban areas other than a whole lot of moving people around with machines (which seems completely ridiculous) and commercial business operations, which is not insignificant with respect to carbon emissions, but only about 6% of total emissions. Basic household living probably isn't much different either way.