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.
I agree that rural "suburbs" - where everyone has their own well (which they usually don't test and will be polluted with PFAS, radiation, and nitrates if they aren't already), their own huge propane tanks, gravel roads, huge pointless lawns, etc. are worse than almost any form of housing.
Suburbs are horrible, but driving through a pretty rural area where large areas of land that were previously undeveloped areas where farming wasn't feasible, or woodlands, are now turned into mcmansions with huge expanses of mowed grass, is depressing. Especially in the areas I used to walk around when I was younger.
Out of all the new homes I've seen built in rural areas, maybe 2% will plant more than a few trees and some native wildflowers. Meanwhile in cities, I have seen people replace their lawns with native plants much more often. Even some suburbanites have planted a decent amount of wildflowers or added a veggie garden recently.
TL;DR the people I've seen building houses in rural areas are horrible stewards of the land and actively want to replace nature with lawns.
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:agony-minion:
Climate Stalin please save us.
Gravel roads are better than paved, I meant that this spread out housing also creates new gravel roads and driveways - which are usually very long and paved with asphalt for the biggest mcmansions.
The fact it isn't even being farmed pisses me off too. If that remnant prairie land was grazed rotationally it would mimic some of the natural processes like buffalo grazing it seasonally and be fine for the soil. Overgrazing cattle on the land is a travesty, but so is putting bermuda grass like you said.
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