Rural Nature Lover Paradox

[urbpan]

People who love Nature (in my most optimistic moments I imagine that this includes a majority of people) of course like to be surrounded by it. Often nature lovers are repelled by cities, and take effort to instead live in the countryside or surrounded by wilderness.

But living outside of the city causes a greater environmental impact: Trees must be cut down, roads must be built, and resources are sent out through diffuse networks. Rural people use more energy heating and cooling their homes, getting to and from work as well as running simple errands. As the population increases, whole non-urban communities are created, paving over wilderness and paving the way for more cars, more houses, more development.

In order to live where you are surrounded by natural beauty, one must participate in a system (development of rural areas) that is slowly and surely destroying that beauty.

Discuss.

Comments

[turil.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm. marmota monax has my dream home!

This post hit me close to home, as our landlord just decided to evict us, primarily due to our more sustainable living practices, including my registered Backyard Wildlife Habitat, that he and the grumpy neighbors don't like (though part of it is just that the landlord is a little crazy). So we have to move. I want to move to the "country" and work at home, like I've been dreaming of for years. David, on the other hand, can't decide what he wants. Originally he was all excited about moving to the wilderness, so I'm not entirely sure why he's postponing it now. He periodically mumbles something about life in the country not being as sustanable as being in the city. I say both can be good, if done thoughtfully. Sustainable transportation is clearly a key element. I like to bike, and we discovered a relatively inexpensive electric scooter than can go almost 20 miles on a charge, and I wouold only want to live somewhere that had at least a rudimentary public transit system. We've already got a very small solar power system (powering my computer right now!), and a windmill would be another good addition. Growing much of our own food is also something that we both want, so I'm looking into learning about permaculture, and David's already an expert when it comes to apple orchards (he lived/worked on one for a couple of years). I think a big stumbling block is that he's worried about what he'll do for work.

As for the ideal situation for the civilized world, I would suggest a design with lots of smaller cities scattered around about 5-15 miles apart (in New England, anyway) with very rural areas in between. The cities would be well connected to eachother with commuter and freight trains, lots of car-free roads, and a few all-vehicle roads. Some parts of the rural areas would be preserved for wildlife, while others would be used for farming and recreational use. This design would allow for some dense development while still letting people be near the wilderness and would be idea for efficient public transit. Suburban sprawl would be nearly eliminated. Oh, and the urban areas would also need to be filled with lots of urban nature!

Nova Scotia seems to be looking to doing some rezoning to encourage this kind of "transit hub" development. This policy was part of what encouraged us to buy land there (in a very rural area that is only about 4-5 miles from a fairly dense college town with plenty of public transportation). The government there seems to be very interested in making the province sustainable, which is cool.

More . . .

[marmota-monax.livejournal.com]

marmota monax has my dream home!

Believe me, it is a lot of very hard work to do all this on top of having full time careers. Long, leisurely vacations are completely out of the question. Even short, hurried vacations rarely happen. It's a trade-off to the accepted modern lifestyle.

. . .our landlord just decided to evict us, primarily due to our more sustainable living practices, including my registered Backyard Wildlife Habitat, that he and the grumpy neighbors don't like

I don't know 'em, but I HATE your landlord and neighbors. Sound like ChemLawn lovers. Grrrrr.

He periodically mumbles something about life in the country not being as sustanable as being in the city. I say both can be good, if done thoughtfully.

That is correct. Maybe you can do the change in less-overwhelming steps, rather than going cold turkey and whole hog.

a windmill would be another good addition.

We looked into windmills. They only work well in very specific and ideal locations. Ridgelines and hilltops are the best. Northeastern US valleys (like where my farm is located) are poor locations, for the most part. Unfortunately, ridgelines are often some of the last-holdout habitats for endangered/threatened flora and fauna species here in New England, so any kind of construction on ridgelines (including quarrying) has an enormous negative impact on the local ecosystems.

Coastal and off-shore windmills really should not be discounted. But I haven't seen impact studies or data on off-shore windmill construction . . .

I think a big stumbling block is that he's worried about what he'll do for work.

That is a huge issue. And hard to solve, sometimes. You may have to lower your expectations with regard to salary. And your purchasing patterns may have to radically change.

I would suggest a design with lots of smaller cities scattered around about 5-15 miles apart (in New England, anyway) with very rural areas in between. The cities would be well connected to each other with commuter and freight trains . . .

What you describe, with regard to smaller urban centers scattered around with very rural areas in between, is pretty much what the north central and northwest part of Massachusetts is like. The most important thing we lack here is good public transportation. The rail lines are still here and most are still very usable, but states don't like to invest in light commuter rail in the rural areas. One of the nearest exceptions to this is NY, which has/had a plan to expand Metronorth as far up the Hudson valley to Rhinebeck and perhaps even further north. I don't know if that plan ever came to fruition.

Best of luck with your future plans!

-Diane