Malthus sounds good but has been wrong for more than two centuries. Innovation changes things. We were once dependent upon whale oil, until we found petrol. When it becomes cost effect to do so, we’ll switch to something else. Until then, neo-Ludditism solves nothing and only makes you angrier.

Look, I know you want to save the planet and you’re surrounded with wasteful pigs that have overdeveloped your personal paradise. But condescension cloaked in piety is both ugly and ineffective. If you prefer to live you life in a perfectly sustainable fashion, feel free. This is America and completely do-able. Go buy some land and live in a solar power yurt. Indeed, give me pointers as it is my goal to do something similar (I prefer stucco blockhouse surrounded by a forest of solar panels). But all your railing about fatheads in Florida driving Hummers with cell phones glued to their foreheads is cheap and makes you sound like a crackpot, complete with an aluminum foil hat.

Solutions, man, solutions. Going back to the 18th century is no better than being a member of the Taliban. Rolling back the clock is not an option. We have to deal with reality as we find it, not how you wish it to be.

dpny