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by GeneralMayhem 3890 days ago
>Wondering what the side effects equivalent to environmental pollution are in this case...

Just like pollution from the fossil-fuel industry, you can pick high-intensity problems that are restricted to the areas nearest the source, or low-intensity problems spread over the whole country/world. For example, the housing pressure in SF/SV is very high intensity but affects only a small part of the world; non-STEM high school and university departments losing prestige and/or funding is less intense in any one place but more widely distributed.