Because, there is another option: accept a lower standard of living. And depending on what your standard is, it can be a perfectly acceptable (even desired) option.
This is it. We westerners, and very especially Americans live an incredibly inflated lifestyle. Walmarts stuffed tonthe roof with useless shit, people mistaking luxuries with necessities and whinging like hell when they can't have their air conditioned 3500sqft house stocked with 3 refrigerators and 9 tvs.
We waste an absolutely disgusting amount of absolutely everything that we produce. No one values anything, and everything is replaceable.
It's sad but I feel like a really and very hard depression would likely be the absolute best thing for this planet and our species in the long term. We are so fat and so lazy and so entitled. It's hard to imagine getting to a more efficient future without a hard cultural reset.
I think in the long term there is no real solution to making the planet and humans coexist in a sustainable manner. Yes, as Covid showed, stark decrease in human activity is very good for the planet. But it is not a long term solution, a depression wouldn’t be either.
I hope I’m wrong but if not, we are on the path for shooting ourselves into oblivion in not so long. Planet will need a couple million years to recover, but I have good hope it will.
