There is an inherent fallacy that the global economy as an entity can be sustained at its growing level of complexity by alternative energy sources. The problem is not the production of the energy, it's the consumption. Environmentalists want to squeeze the pinch point (energy supply) to force change, but it won't address the biggest problem of all: we consume more energy than we can afford (both environmentally, and resource depletion wise).
It's absolutely mind-blowing the amount of energy that goes into building one car, or powering the network to sustain a cell phone, or building a road/building. As we build more elaborate things the energy need will increase to both support these new complex things, but also the old things.
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