Every instance of industrialisation has had knock on effects, which in turn, have …… and so on. We need to place greater emphasis on the 3 R’s and ask why we pollute so much?
It comes down to greed and may I suggest (without having thought this through – so here goes. Owning land enables them to charge ever more for others to use it. To be able to pay the worker needs higher wages – so capatism has built in an inherent inflation. No one expects energy prices to fallas this is factored into the global growth pattern.
This enables the government to support the massive profits of energy companies rather than supporting insulation and small scale energy schemes. The public believe the lies about energy security and are comforted by the ease of the internal combustion engine.
There is no money to be made by an alternative future – hence META and others investing millions in data collection for AI. I am not a Luddite – science is brilliant – until it beomes the property of mega rich individuals and companies. Then profit over comes ethics. e.g. Ford prosecuted by Ralph Nader for not withdrawing cars with a fatal design profit because it wouod be cheaper to pay compensation to the dead and onjured rater than fix the problem.
Basically, in my mind it keeps coming back to land ownership. I will think this through a bit more! maybe the modern development is data ownership.