I like how you had in the title "nothing we WILL do about it" rather than "nothing we CAN do about it." The difference is extreme and it tells the future of humanity. But can you blame us poor humans? How are we to know better when it's "all we know."
I have recently hit a point in my life where I have been bothered by the consumption. It's more a realization of the system that I am feeding into and the understanding that nearly no modern conveniences come without something/someone else's expense/suffering.
I mean, they have a system in place where I can't obtain food, water, and shelter without kneeling to the almighty state currency, USD. I am not saying I expect anything free, but I see this as control.
I believe, even more so now than ever, that we have the technology to get the masses off gas powered vehicles. I believe a few of the biggest problems regarding this are money in politics and the fact that the rich oil elite spend ridiculous amounts of money ensuring that these new technologies don't have a fast path to taking over the market. Essentially, the "elite" control too much and won't allow the power to shift until they have enough corporate control for the newer technologies. An example of what I mean; if the oil rich have ownership in the majority of the new "green sector" they wouldn't care so much if the masses switched off oil because they still get their pockets filled. You know?
There is energy literally EVERYWHERE around us. People forget this. Every element of oxygen, hydogen, nitrogen, and whatever else, they all hold a certain amount of energy in their atoms, it's just a matter of humans knowing a way to harvest them. I believe a good example of this is the atom bomb... split the hydrogen atom and... well.... there is a reason we don't do that regularly.
Hydrogen fuel cells are another amazing example of unused technologies. We can literally each set up our own renewable energy, self sustaining systems but no business or governments are interested in helping people consumer less. I have never heard of LFTRs but I will do some reading :D
With solar, it's kinda funny. Right now many states offer very nice incentives for you to invest in solar. For example, in Wisconsin you get roughly 48% of your cost back in tax credits at the end of the year if you do it all right. That's nearly 1/2 the sticker price and getting a $5k system for $2.5k really isn't too bad when you start looking at average kwh per USA household. I would gladly invest in solar currently if I had the money and if I lived in a more permanent location. I don't foresee living here more than 3 years currently since I want to move out of the city and live more homestead like. But I plan on getting solar panels when I get out of town, hopefully while incentives are still in place. I saw an article the other day that showed some states are already started to reduce their incentives because the overall price of panels (mainly produced in China) are coming down steadily. The problem here is: cheaper panels + less incentives = more expensive panels for consumer and less reason to switch.
It will be hard to get the masses to get of the state that we are in. I do believe this election process has opened many peoples eyes to the crazyness that is afoot in this country. In the end I just home Mother Earth wins, but she needs warriors and healers. They are being born each day as we enter this new age. I don't have much faith in humanity in it's current state, but I believe that we will correct out path.
Great article and I like your point of view. Keep up the good work.