Cheap energy is how we've created our society. The (huge) problem we're facing is that our economy is based on the (incorrect) assessment that we will have an ever-increasing supply of energy. Barring some miracle invention/discovery (like fission, or a cheap way to produce hydrogen) it's rather the opposite, at least in terms of EROEI.
The difference between the monetary economy and the real economy is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Agree.
> The (huge) problem we're facing is that our economy is based on the (incorrect) assessment that we will have an ever-increasing supply of energy.
I'd add to that: the problem isn't so much that energy sources are currently running out. We've still got decades of fossil fuels left over to run the existing economy.
This makes the problem even harder to solve. We do have the energy. It sits right there, tempting states to grant permission to use it. But states ought to refrain from using it because the ecosphere/climate is in danger.
States globally switching to renewable energy would be much easier than it is (almost effortless), if we were truly running out of fossil energy.
As things are, states that undertake the enormous effort to make the transition to renewables, are at an economic disadvantage, at least in the short-term.
Thus the one big challenge is the political one, of setting up an international treaty that somehow turns this economic disadvantage into incentives for the transition.