What I mean is that as the (probably justified) climate furor goes up, so will go hopelessness. According to the current civic discourse, it's all our fault (we

What I mean is that as the (probably justified) climate furor goes up, so will go hopelessness. According to the current civic discourse, it's all our fault (well, it really is) and therefore we are a blight for the planet. People may start thinking that having less babies and less population is a good idea. You don't really need to forbid people to have babies, all you need to do is to stop pushing for people to have babies above the replacement rate. In some developed countries and in some underdeveloped countries with easy access to contraceptives, people are already having babies below the replacement rate and the governments are trying to revert the trend. And this is today; who knows how culture will change if things get really bad. Leaving the babies aside for a minute, the "industries are bad for the environment" is a widely held belief already. Optimistic people believe in clean industries and if we get them in time, all will be good. If they don't, then the pessimistic people will say that there is no such thing as clean industries, and as the threats associated with global warming get more severe, pushing for de-industrialization may give an easy remedy. It could be an extra-economic movement (political movement, even a violent revolution), not something necessarily incentivized by market forces. Regarding cattle (and in minor degree, crops), nobody seems to have a good solution. Don't get me wrong, IMO industries are good for human well-being, and with a bigger, properly-trained population under supportive economic conditions industries will be even more so. But there is only so much of that the planet can take. Therefore, as long as we choose compromise, we are choosing away well-being. If what I said about compromises and choosing away well-being and cow meat makes my point difficult to understand, here is a thought experiment that may help: imagine that in the year 2050 we discover a way of keeping people young forever at the cost of expending 1000 kW[^1] per person in a biomedical simulation... ---- [^1]: kW is a power unit, so that means 1000 kW.h per hour, or 24000 kW.h per day per person.