[throwaway6532]

>but I see no issue with billions of people living in cities with easy access to pools, parks, schooling, jobs, and comfortable safe, warm/cool housing and living standards that are science fiction to their immediate ancestors

So sand shortages, and water shortages are not a thing?

[ZeroGravitas]

The problems with water and sand are not physical limits. Like climate change and pollution generally they're just unpriced externalities.

We have better solutions already, getting people to use then when they can abuse the situation for short term profit is the hard bit.

And ironically, if you intend to abuse the system for short term profit, one of your best moves is to claim the problem is not solvable (though only once claiming it's not happening stops working).

[throwaway6532]

>The problems with water and sand are not physical limits. Like climate change and pollution generally they're just unpriced externalities.

I'd say it's a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. They're definitely are physical limits to those things, and they are definitely subject to unpriced externalities at present. I think the water shortages in South Africa are a good case study where the public reacted to avert a crisis once they were made acutely aware that a crisis was imminent if they didn't act. People just take water for granted, until they no longer can. But in saying that there is almost certainly a point at which things just can't keep up, or the alternative cannot be procured/switched to in a short enough time to avoid the disaster. I see it less as a problem of pure physical limits and more as a problem in control theory.