Why did humans decide to settle down in very harsh environments like Siberia or the Saharan Desert, why not live in places more moderate and more accepting to life and civilization?
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Related to the other answers: Humans are believed to have evolved many of their features, including upright walking, in arboreal areas aka places with a lot of trees.
It is not known why humans then expanded to savannahs and more open grasslands (which are somewhat harsher to survive in) though a popular theory is climate change caused the forests to recede.
After that, human expansion is believed to have been rather broad and far reaching. Again, most of the migration seems driven by climate change. But at this point, the evolution of upright walking and the ability to travel very far (thanks to sweat glands and other evolutionary advantages) along with the likelihood of emerging intelligence gave humans the ability to recognize the need to travel, travel, and survive where they traveled to, even though the environment was harsh.
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