He goes on to document the way in which population pressure has generated crisis after crisis in the various international hot spots. So why is that problem continually being debunked by people like Pericles? An article in neuroscience may give part of the answer (Adolphs, K.I.R., The Brain's Rose Coloured Glasses. nature neuroscience 2011. 14(11).) It seems that many of us are wired to deny anything that shakes our optimism in the future - bad things happen to others cannot happen to me seems to be the way some of us are conditioned to think. That same sort of thinking can lead to avoiding uncomfortable conclusions about the causes of unrest or the fact that our cities have moved well beyond any standards of sustainability.
Of course the deniers employ elegant sophistry to bolster their 'intellectual' response which is really the adult equivalent of hiding under the bed clothes.

sarnian "Why then are some States in the US actually ripping up bitumen from roads because they cannot afford to repair them anymore?"

I know you love to knock the US, that's a given and the schadenfreude is palpable, but where are you hearing this stuff?

So you believe they can afford to rip up roads .. which of course takes no labor or cost (sarcasm), rather than repair them?

Think about it, why not just abandon them, why rip them up?

Why spend money they evidently cannot afford?

This is the richest country in the world we're talking about.

Which states?

Are they ripping up old roads, because they have just built brand new really good roads?

Spending money to remove something they cannot afford .. sounds like, like ..

It just sounds like some US hating lefty urban myth

Ever been to the US sarnian?

Great place, wonderful people .. a bit crowded for an Australian, but otherwise same sort of people, trying to get on with things.

They are not stupid, they still rule the world, they are still the most technically advanced people in the world.

Amicus;

Yes I have been to the US.
Ripping up roads is a cheap way to replace it with an easily graded gravel road.
I disagree that the US is the richest country in the World …….. now.

They are not stupid? Some of them are stupid.

They think they still rule the world.

They were the most technically advanced people in the world.

Wonderful people? Yes some of them but certainly not all.

sarnian, says ..

"Why then are some States in the US actually ripping up bitumen from roads because they cannot afford to repair them anymore?"

So they are ripping them out because they cannot repair them, but can afford to rip them out, then they turn them into a different kind of road .. what was I saying about plans and building?

"Ripping up roads is a cheap way to replace it with an easily graded gravel road"

Rubbish, they might be ripping them out, to upgrade them to a different surface, they are not going back to gravel roads, what a fantasy.

Your stories get more and more convoluted with each telling.

Sure some are stupid, like here. Some are blinded by their hatred of others, like here .. eh?

My thanks to Michael for the perfect opportunity to plug my own little hobby:
http://nakedhydroponics.com

Flying over the rural areas of our country, one should note the meandering avenues of greenery, never very much wider than the rivers they flank. As Michael points out, cities are now a much more reliable source of water for agriculture than our rivers are. Indeed, in the south east areas of Queensland, agriculture often goes begging, as water supplies are usurped to water urban lawns.
And the water from the cities is already enriched with lots of valuable fertiliser.
It's absolutely insane that agriculture is made to compete with cities for water, when the one lot can serve both, and better.

An article on a return to gravel roads in the USA:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-03-gravel-roads_N.htm

and a longer article on the same topic:

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52300