My opinion is this: when looking at growth (which supports dreams of greater lives to come) one has to consider the energy it takes to power a dream, and specifically, “surplus energy” that underpins a surplus economy.

The second consideration for a dream is predictably which is derived from stability. Yes, political forces by ebbs and flows can be unpredictable and lead to unstable times. But the concept of political instability is not unknown or outside of human experience. We cope with political ups and downs.

But the unpredictability of our climate and it’s trajectory to a situation that is outside of human history going back 10,000 years is something entirely new (and a consequence of the carbon intensive energy use that set off all of our dreaming for better lives).

The American Dream, the European Dream, all dreams of easy living are at a dead end because we don’t have a sustainable, renewable, and Earth compatible energy source to buy the dream.

So the ugly political drift will continue as humanity comes to grips with living with less. We are set up for a downsizing.

And just to add another factor about our current decline (or perhaps a leading indicator) I recently saw a news report that State Farm insurance will no longer write new home policies in California because the climate risk (e.g. forest fires) is too great. The unpredictable costs are too great for a risk-evaluation dependent insurance company. The journey we are on to unprecedented climate risk is just heating up. Dreams are not made of this.