These two images are typical rural sprawl compared with Central Manhattan, on the exact same scale. Now I'm not an expert on these matters, but something tells me pollution, traffic and logistical problems would be much, much worse is everyone had their own plot of land.
Citation?
cities are a key contributor to climate change, as urban activities are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates suggest that cities are responsible for 75 percent of global CO2 emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest contributors, while it's estimated that only 56% of people live in cities
It is really the suburbs that jack up the carbon footprint of urban living in "developed" countries, as actually living directly in the downtown core in an apartment with subways and no daily highway commutes is actually pretty good.
In developing nations the pattern is more clear
if you're counting suburbs the whole thing is garbage
This post feels unnecessarily hostile comrade. I didn't make suburbs cities I'm just sharing some studies on the subject