[avidphantasm]

It doesn’t matter how efficiently the city is run. At some point, it may become impossible to support current levels of population. For instance, if drought conditions continue to be more common, there will be less and less water available, which means less wastewater for use in thermoelectric plants. Also, this means less water to maintain urban vegetation, which will also demand more water as temperatures rise and vapor pressure deficit rises. Less urban vegetation means less evapotranspiration, less latent heat flux, and greater urban heat island effects, which will further increase air conditioning & power loads above and beyond what would be the case with warmer temperatures assuming current land use/vegetation cover. It’s very easy to envision ways that places like Phoenix collapse.