Far less of that would be required if we used less energy, and it's additive.

Eating beefburgers, flying Australia <-> Europe for holidays, driving a Hummer, using plastic for everything, and so on and so forth, just isn't necessary. My street has twice the number of cars it did when I was younger.

The idea that "terrible consequences" will come about from people taking the piss a bit less is really very silly. It makes me think of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch but inverted (when I were young, we had all the things...)

Adding insulation to your home, riding your bike for short trips, not taking that vacation across the ocean, and eating less beef doesn't stop you from building infrastructure to mitigate the effects of the climate catastrophe.