At this point in time, there is truly no reason to build any more housing or any more luxury development. We are all constantly being fed that the only reason there is no affordable housing is because not enough housing has been built, the supply-and-demand nonsense that has already been disproven. Oddly enough, there are property management companies keeping their residences empty and there are people looking for passive income hoping to profit from a property they flipped. The housing kept empty for profit does not, however, reduce the amount of pressure on the infrastructure, and running water is still required for all of those residences. Therefore, continuing to build means continuing to add infrastructure on already scarce resources.
Back in the day, the ecosystem was still functioning relatively well, and temperatures and precipitation could be predicted with enough accuracy to provide for smaller groups of people. Yes, there might have been some deviations, but for the most part, people were able to plan crops–hence, the development of agriculture. Even with industrialization, people were still able to predict enough precipitation through either rainfall or snowfall to plan crops and build communities. These patterns were fairly dependable, even though there have been some climate events in the past that stood out as anomalies.
However, with the rise of “more” all over the world, not only has precipitation been unpredictable, people have outright been using the water to the point of depletion. There are cities in the world that no longer have water because people continued to develop or practice industry despite the absence of a critical resource. Crystal City, Texas had to deal with a black water incident due to an aging water tower, and small developments in Arizona have had to deal with bigger cities choosing to cut access. On a special note, there was a legal loophole that allowed developers to build in Arizona without promising guaranteed access to water, and there is still a golf course in the area where the water was inaccessible.
This mindset of building without thinking has not only affected the United States. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico has lost a great deal of its water due to the extensive development largely catering to the wealthy, leaving no answers as to what happens when there is no river to plan. This is one example, but it does not end there, especially considering that Mexico City is facing imminent water shortages in both rich and poor communities. Deserts still exist, and despite the wonderful documentaries that portray floods after weeks and months, there are no solutions to droughts that go on for years. Thinking that there will be aquifers and other underground reservoirs that will supply infinite development is a dangerous ideology to support.
**Image taken from an image in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.
Chasing A Dying Empire 