Re: externalities

Check out what fracking has done to Pennsylvania's formerly wild forests compared to New York; there is a hideously ugly network of access roads and cut clearings for fracking wells .

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9889724,-78.7814974,8036m/da...

My friend pointed this out to me and I was truly disgusted...

Well, it could be worse as seen in such "formerly wild forests" of New York.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Manhattan,+New+York,+NY,+U...

Here's the same place, just zoomed out a little: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9889724,-78.7814974,128506m/...

Pretty much everything that's light green on that map is forest that was cleared for farmland. By 1872, the eastern states had cleared 52% of their forests, mostly for agriculture. Habitat destruction is an underappreciated problem, but let's keep things in perspective. Those dirt access roads are narrow strips of forest, and they'll be quickly overgrown once they're abandoned.

Disgusted by some roads?

Same with all of british columbia, logging roads everywhere

At least that's for logging and not fracking. Logging sequesters millions of cubic meters of carbon (trees), and the BC forest license program requires audited 3rd party replanting, ensuring continuously increasing sequestration.

Even the amount of carbon sequestered in wooden telephone poles across North America is staggering, let alone houses and other structures.