Urbanites need these memes to justify living in the least environmentally friendly places on the planet

To these people there is no such thing as a trade-off or differences in priorities, because they have the correct priorities so it makes no sense to make a trade-off. It can't be a case of, "I prefer my way of living, they prefer theirs, and that's ok." It has to be, "My way of living is unquestionably superior, and I have to enforce it on everyone else."