I won't argue the point that without some sort of alternative/cleaner energy source, current increases in population and consumption would prove ruinous. I think you're spot on. The questions are then:
1. Will developments arrive in time?
2. What gets done with conventional technology in the interim?
And/or, as Messybear hints at (I think), are we due for a course correction away from the American model of consumption? Maybe some of each will be true?
I choose to be an optimist for reasons I don't fully understand.
