I'm naturally inclined towards austerity, but this problem cannot be fixed with cutbacks & efficiency alone.
Similarly, there is a huge market-driven surge in renewables: https://coloradosun.com/2021/01/25/solar-energy-colorado-uni...
A key part of this viewpoint is that strong demand in the market can actually be an accelerator.
Turning back to austerity - even if a 50% drop in demand could save us, it's just never going to happen. Even the global COVID lockdowns made less than a 10% cut in energy consumption. You'd be stunningly successful if you cut even 1% through austerity campaign.
Dense living is associated with poorer mental health and a variety of diseases, and that not taking into account people with autism, introversion etc, some of whom find urban density neurologically intolerable.
Humans didn’t evolve to live densely.
> So what do I do? know what we're doing is what we can
Everything you do is inconsequential in the face of living in a detached single family home on a quarter acre lot.
That very simple fact has exponential knock on effects requiring so much more mass to move so much further and hence consuming so much more energy, that everything else you do is meaningless.
The only solution was reducing total consumption, either per capita or capitas itself, but the former is not going to happen if people live in insufficiently dense manners that preclude public transport or walking and bicycling, and necessitate large roads, parking lots, and personal vehicles.
And of course, once you own or benefit from detached single family house lifestyles, you are not going to vote for anything that inconveniences you or causes you to reduce consumption, such as increased taxes on fossil fuels.