Perhaps, but to be fair, there are fairly specific geophysical criteria for plopping down a nontrivial human settlement, mainly relating to the water table and

Perhaps, but to be fair, there are fairly specific geophysical criteria for plopping down a nontrivial human settlement, mainly relating to the water table and agriculture. Inland, arid tundra, for example, isn't good place to found a town, and neither is any place where you can neither grow local food nor deliver it easily from other places. The more anthrocentric aspects, like proximity to transportation networks and economic activity, also play a huge role. All in all, it's not reasonable to suggest that much of the empty space seen from a plane can be filled out with people equally well. Indeed, a disproportionate share of energy use goes toward supporting life in places nature did not will to be particularly habitable. Very expensive contrivances--none altogether successful, and whose sustainability is in doubt--exist to create water and indoor cooling in places like Las Vegas, for example, and to pump water out of New Orleans or parts of the Netherlands. Technology is impressive and can compensate, but neither cheaply nor without all kinds of negative externalities.