Everything any human does within material existence has material costs associated with it. One cost that has been almost totally ignored until now is the ecological cost of the consumption-driven economy. We are ( finally) learning that we have no choice but to take that cost into account.

We must always compares costs with benefits to make the best decisions possible. On that basis, to argue for fossil fuels over wind and solar technologies for producing energy is clearly wrongheaded (much less ecologically better technologies, such as improved nuclear--even without fusion).

We are on the cusp of ecologically sustainable (sufficient) energy. We would never have gotten this far without recognizing--being forced to recognize--the total cost of using fossil fuels for energy.