Our high energy industrial consumer economy is not sustainable.
We used to talk about "enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world." As it turns out there are enough natural gas reserves to destroy the world as we know it if we burn them. Climate change and rising oceans make it certain that various populated places in the world will be repeatedly knocked down faster than they can be rebuilt. Houston, we have a problem.
We are already seeing climate change refugees, and that problem is only going to get worse, even within the United States. It might be especially bad in the United States. During the Dust Bowl of the 'thirties, Okie was not a term of endearment here in California.
Success is doing just enough work to be comfortable and *happy* with the smallest environmental footprint possible, and by having *fewer* children overall, enough that the human population is declining to sustainable levels.
It's possible Miami might not be the best destination for your kid after the city has been trashed by a few hurricanes and flooding, but maybe your kid will find a good living situation in another city, a lifestyle with a small environmental footprint that affords them the time and energy to pursue their art. Einstein was a patent clerk. Einstein had the opportunity to daydream about cutting edge physics, a very fine art.
My parents are both artists. They always had day jobs, but they also had time to pursue their art and just enough money to provide for me and my siblings, sometimes at the most basic level, but never below. I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in a home entirely disconnected from the U.S.A. consumer lifestyle. We once lived a year without a refrigerator, these mad skills I later found useful living on my own. My wife and I are a two car family, one $900, one $800. I've got mechanical skills 'cause when I was a teen if you wanted to drive a family car you might have to fix it.
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