Urbanization is a result of increased energy consumption from "summary" of Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels by Ian Morris
Urbanization is a process that has unfolded over thousands of years, transforming human societies from small groups of foragers to sprawling cities teeming with millions of people. This shift has been driven by a variety of factors, but one of the most important is the increasing amount of energy that societies are able to harness and consume. As humans have transitioned from foraging to farming to fossil fuel use, the amount of energy available to them has grown exponentially. Foragers relied on the energy they could gather from wild plants and animals, which was limited by the constraints of the natural world. With the advent of agriculture, humans were able to harness the energy of the sun more efficiently, leading to surpluses that could support larger populations. This in turn allowed for the development of cities, where people could concentrate and specialize in different tasks, leading to further increases in productivity. The use of fossil fuels in the past few centuries has taken this process to new heights, providing energy in quantities that were previously unimaginable. This has enabled the rapid growth of cities on a scale never seen before in human history. Urbanization is thus intimately tied to energy consumption, as cities require large amounts of energy to sustain themselves. From heating and cooling buildings to powering transportation systems to providing electricity for industry, urban areas are voracious consumers of energy. In this way, the history of urbanization can be seen as a history of increasing energy consumption. As societies have developed the ability to access and utilize more energy, they have been able to support larger populations living in ever more complex and interconnected urban environments.
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