> Environmental issues aside, there is a lot of downside - it's not just like all that industry can be shifted from one part of the economy to the other. Yep.

> Environmental issues aside, there is a lot of downside - it's not just like all that industry can be shifted from one part of the economy to the other. Yep. But the planning for it has to be done, because this change is visible on the horizon. If it isn't planned for, the shift will be forced, happen rapidly, and most of the ill effects will hit those least able to handle them. (I mean, it probably won't be, or at least not even close to the level it needs to be, and only thing most people can do is vote...) I'm from the north of England, and the economy of the region has, as long as I've been alive, been depressed. Heavy manufacturing leaving the area (leaving the UK...): that's a major cause. But coal mining used to be central -- it was dying for a long time but it was really put to the sword in the 1980s. It was inevitable that it had to happen, just as I think this is, but the way it happened devastated the region -- and that's translated into several decades of damage, and has had hugely detrimental effects, particularly social. The idea was that retraining would happen, the economy would be shifted, but they were mostly empty promises (why do people of a certain age hate Thatcher with every iota of their beings? Well...). Most of my family are from or live in the north of Scotland, and it's gone from the majority of them being employed in oil industry or oil industry-adjacent jobs to...not in the last 10-15 years. It's biting hard there (though there are jobs in renewables: not enough, but much better than situation was in NE England)