Speaking for the US many populated arid areas are completely unsustainable as population centers (ironically also where most people in the US have been moving for awhile now), especially because water resources haven’t been managed rationally in many arid areas. This story will absolutely be a global one though, see Tehran for one massive example, Lake Mead for another. No water and deadly heat waves are going to make for limitless ghost town tourism attraction opportunities!
The future is bright for abandoned building photography communities!
Well that’s the thing. We have tons of water here. We don’t irrigate. There’s no datacenter. Yet we still managed to fuck it up.
But I agree with your statement. Places like AZ and CA are crazy, growing lettuce and almonds and lawns and having bathtubs and pools is really bizarre behaviour in a desert. We’ve really lost touch with nature.