All the environmental degradation is being caused by the supply side devouring the world to meet those demands.
The fossil fuel industry is driven by demand, just like the rest of 'em. Unless humans learn to live within their means, learn that hard work isn't a sin - debt is. Unless humans get rid of capitalism with its delusion of endless growth, it will continue...until it collapses. And oil, be it tar sands crud or any other will, like water, flow and ooze however it can via the path of least resistance to meet the demand of the demand-ers...until.
And there are no truly green alternatives only green illusions. Every type of product has dirty effects on the environment embedded in it. This interview with researcher Ozzie Zehner of UC Berkeley is eye-opening. There are no 'Green' solutions to the environmental degradation being caused by human over-consumption.
As soon as a person researches the science underlying every newly hyped - hype, that's where the money is - solution that allows continued consumption they run into the same problem - advertisers can easily fool us, but they can't fool physics, they can't hide all the energy embedded in their new gizmo. They can make money with slick slogans, but they can't fool the second law of thermodynamics. The only real solution to over-consumption is consuming less.
A Prius, for instance, may burn less thru-put fossil fuel, but its manufacture, its batteries, its rare earth elements have environmental costs that don't disappear. Demand driven consumer capitalism is the driver of the broader 'environmental pollution matrix' of which global warming is one aspect. Jorge Majfud understands that distinction when he says, "Trying to reduce environmental pollution without reducing consumerism is like combating drug trafficking without reducing the drug addiction."
There are solutions to the broad environmental pollution but they are inconvenient, they include hard work [4 letter words in our culture] and consuming far less of everything [another blasphemy]. The Want-Less meme is very well explored on The Simplicity Institute website who's many excellent articles and info on living simply and happily through wanting less is called “a beacon of hope.” by Richard Heinberg, from the Post-Carbon Institute.
