Comments by "Adam Ragusea" (@aragusea) on "Peter Zeihan || Will Automation Save the World?" video.

@Mr_Fairdale civilization began on highly fertile alluvial plains — areas that get flooded with river water and nutrient-rich silt. Wet, green, narrow strips along rivers — too narrow to support modern urban populations, which is why cities gradually spread out and away from the river banks. In doing so, they disrupted the delicate ecosystems further away from the rivers and contributed to the desertification of West Asia and North Africa, much of which was probably greener 10-20k years ago.
4
@Mr_Fairdale there’s a reason that the banks of the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile are the centers of civilization no longer. The Nile is a gigantic river and yet Cairo is starting to run out of water. There are simply better places to build large, modern cities, though some people will probably continue to live near the old cradles forever. I think Phoenix is the butt of so many jokes because it’s a particularly extreme example of the sustainability problems that all modern cities struggle with. All of its water has to be brought in by canal from rivers far away, and those rivers are starting to run dry. It was developed almost entirely in the automobile era, so it’s particularly reliant on petroleum, another liquid that has to be brought in from far away (though this will change in the EV era thanks to ample solar power resources). Because it was built during the automobile sprawl era, the building lots are all absurdly large and people want them to be green, which requires a ton of water compared to a tiny back garden or rooftop terrace in Cairo or Baghdad, etc. All that said, I was in downtown Phoenix for 48 hours for a conference once and I had a great time. Very pretty mountains in the distance.
4