Originally Posted by
jon c.
As one who lives in a rural area wholly by choice, I see no need for any solution. Yes, there are trade offs but on balance to me they are more than worth it. And there's no reason it isn't sustainable for the foreseeable future.
Your personal lifestyle may well be sustainable, and of course you are free to live it, but for many rural residents it's an illusion that country living is somehow greener than city living. They occupy more space, drive more, need more energy for home heating and other uses, it takes more energy to deliver mail and parcels to them, their malls and mall parking lots take up more space, and in those and many other ways, they strain nature in general far more than if the same number of people lived in a fairly compact neighbourhood; and most of them eat food produced some distance away by somebody else, just like city people.