Wow, what a rollercoaster!

The beginning of this was so wise and logical - the end so short-sighted.

I call this argument The Doug.

I had a friend called Doug who had diabetes and yet drank Coke and smoked cigarettes. His argument was that he had survived so far, including several heart attacks.

And he did in fact survive five heart attacks. Not the sixth though. RIP Doug.

I've known people with trust funds who made the same argument - the money hasn't run out yet, so it never will - and learned better.

What are these commodity items which we used to consume and now we consume a lot less of, anyway? The list is tiny - CFCs and...?

And CFCs were easy because we already had a substitute.

Humans use more coal, more gas, more wood, more plastic, more meat, more dairy, more wool, more silk, more aluminium, more iron and steel, more aluminium, more copper, more potassium than at any time in our history, today.

The idea that we'll run through these and just find a magic substitute is a charming fantasy.

When we blow through our resources, it will be over, except we'll destroy ourselves with our own climate before that.