Environmental systems are awesomely complex, and all are interrelated. So, while it’s great-and probably correct-to tout the benefits of high-density living it is also important to recognize the local impacts. Finally, let’s recognize that the problems or air and water quality in urban environments do far more harm to the human animals that anything else. That’s what water treatment plants and asthma medication are all about, after all.

The point of the article is that per capita cities like New York are greener than any suburban or rural areas, mostly due to us not driving everywhere. I don’t think that’s really disputable; to form an effective counter-argument you’d have to show some unique or out-of-scale environmental harm that emerges from high density areas.

We’ve gotta do it like India man– make paper cups that disintegrate when you throw ‘em hard enough onto the train tracks. heh.

Second, even if we assume that reincarnation doesn’t happen at all, isn’t there something special about humanity that’s worth saving? Aren’t we different from the bugs & bees? Doesn’t that whole self-consciousness thing mean something? The nihilist responds by saying, “Means nothing, look at all the wars, all the self-consciousness gets us is the ability to destroy ourselves.” By contrast, anyone with a shred of optimism points to the positive things humans have done and to the possibility that BECAUSE we are self-conscious, we can stop the trend of self-destruction. And what better way to harness our unique power than to save future humans from extinction? That’s the best use of the innate faculty unique to Homo Sapiens that I can think of.

Third, if you don’t buy any of that you think we’re just plain animals and nothing more, no smarter and no more self-aware–an idea with which I wholeheartedly disagree–then we at least share in animals’ desire to pass on their gene code. Biologists seem to think that at the end of the day that’s all animals really want anyway. At the least we are animals, so at the least we wanna pass on our genetic material, which means you’ll want to have your descendants well taken care of. Got to keep that DNA flowing.