Renewable Revolution

The quagmire that faces industrialised civilisation is much of it was built using cheap fossil fuels which were not only subsidised directly but in nearly all cases the externalities were never factored in so the damage and costs associated with fossil fuel were lugged to the general population/wildlife/environment.

The other important thing is energy especially cheap energy acts as an enabler of other resources. This means if it is cheap to procure energy then the costs of getting other resources lessens and when you reduce the price of any commodity you encourage its consumption. As consumption increases you not only encourage more wasteful consumption but you also make it viable to mine big fields that could only be economic under the current regime of fossil fuels. Think of all those gold mines or other rare metal mines that need to be treated with harsh chemicals. None of those projects would be viable if there was no cheap energy so this is another hidden associated cost of fossil fuels.