[lotsofpulp]

You need less road space to distribute resources to more people in dense areas. For example, the resources to deliver everything people need in Manhattan is less than if you took all those people out of Manhattan and spread them around in detached houses.

By exponential, I meant when you increase the distance between them, you multiply everything consumed by an extra factor. More pipe for water and sewer and gas, more wire for electricity, more road for more intersections and wider roads, more miles driven for garbage trucks, more schools, it has a knock on effect of all consumption.

And it’s just as simple as that - the more you consume, the more you pollute. The more you consume space, the more you consume everything since the further everything has to get pushed (assuming you’re still expecting all the trappings of modern life). I am guessing that the extra space I am consuming now is probably a luxury that future generations won’t have, assuming population levels of people who live an American lifestyle hold steady or rise.

[natmaka]

"Expecting all the trappings of modern life" is key.

Isn't it mainly tied to "density"? All other parameters being equal consuming only local resources at a rate which doesn't extinguish them solves the equation. On the pollution side of this: even if is is strictly the same (quantitatively and qualitatively) aren't natural surroundings more able to cope with it ("digest") if produced on a larger area, more sparsely, somehow diffusing the load?

We may, however, be unable or unwilling to adequately reduce our expectations.