What is "Civilization"?

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto Persuaded Me

In his book Civilizations, Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto makes a compelling argument that "Civilization" means human activities aimed at changing the natural environment to suit human needs and wants.

Based on this concept, Human History is thus defined by the search for energy to create, maintain, and grow Civilization, as he explains in this video:

Why Human History is the search for Energy

Civilization will NEVER rest upon Wind-Solar-Battery MACHINES harvesting the weather.

We’ve tried to run civilization on weather and biomass, and we can do it. However, we can’t do much beyond survival. All growth in the past was due to using other peoples or animals energy, civilization in Elizabethan England wasn’t much better than the Egyptians civilization 4,000 years previously.

Civilization didn’t start to take off till we figured out how to use the energy in fossil fuels.