The astonishing story of how a movement’s quest for rural simplicity drifted into a formula for mass death By George Monbiot, published on monbiot.com, 4th October 2023 Tourism sells to you the story of what it has taken away. It markets the “traditional” and “unchanging” and, in doing so, changes it. As the old joke…
Well, that sounds like one of the few places where most people really are still working in agriculture and/or landscape conservation, which is great.
But that seems the rather the exception from the rule, at least as far as “developed” nations go. In the rural villages (in Europe) I had deeper insight to, maybe 10% of the population is still active in agriculture, and maybe another 20% indirectly in support services or landscape conservation. Some higher percentage do some small scale backyard farming, but really nothing on the level that would have much impact on the overall landscape.
The majority are rather working in jobs in the nearby towns (or are retired) and going there everyday by car. And driving long distances for the smallest of things is considered normal and “necessary”.
Basically everything is highly dependant on fossil fuels, from transport to heating etc. And the houses are large and need loads of heating / AC due to bad insulation. I have seen an increase in solar-systems though, because of higher homeownership rates, but that’s really insufficient compared to how much energy is wasted otherwise.
In the specific case where I currently live there is also loads of tourism, which adds to all that.