[big_chungus]

I hope this convinces people to become more self-sufficient overall and grow a little of their own food. Living farther out from dense urban cores on more land will help, and conveniently, it will also make one less likely to fall ill. Telecommuting will hopefully enable people to live much less densely and avoid something like this recurring at its present scale.

[yardie]

The climate impact of individuals living in the city vs those living in the suburbs is considerable. More people living away from the city increases deforestation and is a net negative as far as lifestyle is concerned. Telecommuting is a nice option but most businesses don't work that way. I work in the commercial arts world. A lot of it is sensory stimuli and requires paying butts in seats. I can't dropship an experience through Amazon working from bungalow in Chiang Mai.

[asdkjh345fd]

>The climate impact of individuals living in the city vs those living in the suburbs is considerable.

Yes, but in the opposite direction of what you imply.

>More people living away from the city increases deforestation

Why would that be the case? Almost all deforestation is for land for farming, not for houses. How much oil is burned growing food and shipping it and storing it and lighting and cooling stores to sell it?

>is a net negative as far as lifestyle is concerned.

Not everyone values the same materialistic things you do.

>I work in the commercial arts world

That's a make-work industry that doesn't need to exist. Consider the massive environmental impact of your industry, and how it adds absolutely no value to society at all. Yet you want to stop people from living further away from massive disease spreading urban centers and growing their own food at a cost of zero burned oil?

[imtringued]

> Consider the massive environmental impact of your industry, and how it adds absolutely no value to society at all.

What massive environmental impact? Commercial art sounds like one of the least energy intensive occupations. You just sit in front of a laptop with low energy consumption. You are sharing a building with hundreds of other people. You probably take public transport instead of commuting by car, live in a small apartment and share heating with other people. Really the biggest pollution source is the food that you are eating as an artist and that's not your fault. It's the fault of the farmer that is using diesel tractors, fertilizing his plants with artificial fertilizer, shipping his food with diesel trucks. All of these pollution sources will have to switch to renewable energy one day. What about that laptop? It's probably running on Renewables today!

[asdkjh345fd]

>What massive environmental impact?

The one you describe in the rest of your post. Billions of tons of CO2 emissions and the outcome is a negative burden on society rather than a benefit.

>It's the fault of the farmer that is using diesel tractors, fertilizing his plants with artificial fertilizer, shipping his food with diesel trucks.

None of those things are the farmer's fault. They are the inevitable and mandatory cost of urbanization. Were you planning to just starve while making ads?

>All of these pollution sources will have to switch to renewable energy one day

That is physically impossible. What will have to happen is techno-industrial society will collapse as we exit the tiny blip in history of abundant energy.

[downerending]

Sprawl is starting to look pretty good right about now.