"Cities are bad and we need to start spreading out."
If you've ever been to New York City you've probably also seen the liter on the sides of the roads, thick exhaust of cabs, and water that seems more like sludge trickling down some streets. People see cities as inherently bad because of the pollution that they create, the hustle and bustle, and the giant buildings. We even refer to them as concrete jungles, which doesn't exactly have the best connotation.
Many people think that the solution to our environmental issues is to spread out into nature where we can all live in farm towns spread far apart. Trust me, I lived in one of these farm towns, bring your tractor to school day, camo prom dresses and all. Despite the love that I have for my small farm hometown, it isn't the greenest city.
These spread out farm towns are actually really bad at keeping a low carbon footprint. One of the easiest ways to see it is through the reliance on cars. I can tell you that in my hometown there was no public transportation system other than our school buses and that the closest drive I would make is the five minutes to the gas station. I lived in a pretty large home where we rarely worried about our water consumption because we had a well rather than city water.
Cities do really well at fixing all of the problems I just described. They are actually great at keeping their environmental foot print down per person. The average of 100 of the largest cities have been found to emit 14% less carbon per person than in the rest of the United States. The book Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen explains all of the points of how this could be true. I read this book while in Costa Rica and it really opened my eyes to thinking critically about environmentalism. If you don't want to read the book, David Owen gives a Ted Talk summarizing his points.
The main points that David Owen makes is due to the cramming of people residents in cities are forced to go to more green alternatives, not necessary because they want to. Driving becomes a hassle so walking is faster and cheaper. Large apartments are costly so a more minimalist style becomes adopted. Water consumption becomes expensive so they become more aware of their usage. The tightening of people helps to create a more forced green mindset. Just because we see denser forms of pollution in these cities doesn't mean that rural towns are any better where the pollution is just more spread out.
I highly recommend looking into the links below or purchasing David Owen's book if you are interested in this topic where you can get a more thorough explanation to this myth.
If you want to research this topic more:
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