People could do with a lot less energy 40 years ago, I'm sure we can get by just fine with a little less.
Where do you live?
I mean this rhetorically, because for a couple billion of people your definition of "minor inconvenience" is literally death.
Ask a Canadian how inconvenient it is to go without heat in the winter.
Ask an elderly Singaporean how inconvenient it is to go without AC in the summer.
If we want, we can buy less styff, fly less, reduce the temperature in our homes, eat less meat and spend less time commuting to a bullshit job. All without causing major inconvenience.
Remember how the entire world was effectively able to switch to lockdown+work from home overnight without coming to a standstill? Very inconvenient, but definitely not the end of the world
Wow. This is so incredibly out of touch. The world consists of more than just wealthy people driving large cars, living in large houses, flying for vacation and work.
Even poorer people in rich/developed countries people die due to lack of cheap energy through heatstroke or freezing. And that is just at a micro level. At a macro level a huge amount of the world's food production relies on cheap energy. Take it away and there will be disastrous consequences.
Energy production levels must increase profoundly, while costs must fall. This is already happening, and not even that slowly in the grand scheme of things. Personal energy generation and storage is already cheaper than the grid as long as you can finance the upfront investment at a reasonable rate.
I’ll say it until I’m, err, green in the face. Make clean energy cheaper and more abundant and it will be used. Make climate friendly products more compelling and cheaper than their dirtier substitutes, and the better products will win on the open market.
Climate austerity is not so much “saving the future” but rather “murdering the poor” and I find it morally indefensible.