IIRC, James Lovelock as part of his Gaia Hypothesis argues that the price of energy is the fundamental input in how much “work” we can do, and subsequently caus

IIRC, James Lovelock as part of his Gaia Hypothesis argues that the price of energy is the fundamental input in how much “work” we can do, and subsequently causes both economic growth and environmental impact, because we do more stuff. The Industrial Revolution was a step change in how much work we could do, and stuff we could create. Looking forward then, something like solving nuclear fusion might unlock a new Industrial Revolution, and hence cause an environmental disaster, because we will be able to do a massively increased amount of “work” for less cost. So more infra, more building, more production. Ergo, clean energy is perhaps not the answer to a clean world. The only green future is one with “expensive” energy.