But why is over-consumption even possible? It's the plentiful cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels that we figured out how to tap into. Once that is gone I am hopeful the next civilization cycle will be more temperate.
More likely once the current civilization’s cheap source of energy is gone, the next civilization will revert to the pre-industrial source of cheap energy: slavery.
Oof, this hurt to read
No it's not, go read the wealth of Nations to understand.
The over production started before we adopted fossil fuels.
Whales made their mistake by being made out of oil.