I greatly appreciate this blog for breaking up the monotonous techno-optimism native to HN, but I don't know that the author has thought through this particular

I greatly appreciate this blog for breaking up the monotonous techno-optimism native to HN, but I don't know that the author has thought through this particular position very well. He's right that, strictly speaking, our odds of preventing climate catastrophe would be better if we would at least consider the idea of substantial reductions to our energy budget; but, the reason that we don't generally think that way is that meaningful reductions to our energy use would entail tremendous suffering. Speaking personally, my gentrified urbanite lifestyle wouldn't likely be too changed- I don't own a car to buy fuel for and the electric bill for my tiny apartment isn't irksome, the price of groceries would go up but even a 2- or 3-times increase wouldn't meaningfully impact my budget. My job is sufficiently abstracted from physical industry that its not going to be rendered uneconomical by any sudden change in global circumstances. But my lifestyle is very strange in this regard (and I'm probably missing some ways in which I would be meaningfully effected.) If you're living out in the boondocks (requiring a car to get anywhere) far inland (so all your food and etc is shipped in likely via truck) and working a blue-collar job (in an industry or context that can be outsourced, rendered unnecessary, or simply done without, in case of economic downturn,) a 2x rise in the price of oil could absolutely destroy your life. The vast majority of humans on this planet don't have the sort of economic buffer that they could tighten their belts to cope with the economic retraction entailed by decreasing energy availability. The governmental and economic elite have "given up" that approach because no one wants to be responsible for that sort of catastrophe. It is valid, I guess, to be of the opinion that "since the world might literally end otherwise, needs must", but I don't get the impression that the author is of this mentality. In either case, they would likely agree that in the face of this extreme option, ways to cheat around it ought to be explored.