[flagrant_taco]

Oh it's definitely not simple, I don't mean to input that.

Your examples only really touch on one relevant example though, sewage. Sewage isn't really an issue in rural areas, off grid seltic systems process waste on site and more compelling systems can even compost human waste with very little effort. Modern central sewage system only exist because of dense cities, they weren't needed before that.

High speed internet is purely a convenience and really shouldn't be a concern if there's any meaningful environmental impact from it. Police and fire similarly are conveniences that may turn into necessities in highs density areas. I live in a rural area where police may show up tomorrow if I call them now and our fire is mostly volunteer.

I've never heard of anyone having real issues from either. Volunteer fire still respond quickly enough and it's amazing how much less import policing is when people are more spread out and the expectation of turning to police for every problem isn't the norm.

[developer93]

Your environmental footprint for transport is higher though right unless you're cycling everywhere, because you need to travel further? Which involves everything you need that you don't produce yourself. Or you're all entirely self sufficient and never leave your smallholdings? I don't mean to sound like a dick, just trying to engage :-)

[bombcar]

Many “rural” people actually live in small towns where it is entirely possible to drive less or not at all. I certainly put less miles on our vehicles even though we have more of them and kids now vs living in “the big city”.

However if all you ever do is drive to the big city I can see how that would take more time and distance.

[flagrant_taco]

There is a lot of room between being entirely self sufficient and minimizing impact. Simply "needing" less goes a very long way to reducing impact.

[thelastgallon]

Yes! And we can home school kids, hunt and fish and fix our own broken bones like they show in the movies. Just need alcohol for the pain (grow your own moonshine?).

[flagrant_taco]

Sure, more people should have the opportunity to gone school their children and hunting, fishing, and foraging is a great way to feed your family with less environmental impact. Knowing how to set a bone is great in an emergency, but I wouldn't recommend leaning only on that if you have other options. Alcohol does work for pain, though be careful with moonshine as poorly stilled liquor can have nasty side effects.