And the IEA, for its part, expects China to continue to be the sole meaningful over-achiever. It recently revised upwards by 728 GW its forecast for total global renewables capacity additions in the period 2023–27. China’s share of this upward revision? Almost 90 percent. While China surges ahead, the rest of the world remains stuck.
We seemed to manage pretty well without rampant consumerism for the first couple of hundred thousand years. Only since capitalist consumerism was invented have people become convinced greed and endless consumption are “just human nature”.
Greed and gluttony have been pervasive throughout history. I have no idea why you would think they were recent phenomena.