In building a sandcastle the eyes and the hands are well coordinated to bring each shovel-full of grains into a meaningful place in the whole. Each grain of sand stands in relationship to all the others in making that whole.
As the tide comes in and the first remnants of a wave of a rising tide touch the lower edge of the seaward-facing wall, things happen fast. Including our attempts to hurry the repairing. But what we see is that many grains. and soon all, are moving away from each other as fast as the eyes can see, but the hands can’t shape fast enough, and our efforts return to the beach.
This is just a metaphor. Interpret it wisely.
Hint: the sandcastle is the civilization we have made on the surface of the earth, wrongly assuming no tides
the reason why energy use is not declining is because of lifestyle and the design of the modern ecosystem- the cities. Almost half of world’s population will not be able to meet their basic needs if governments announce drastic cuts. So it is not west vs rest but rather city vs rural. For it is the rural area in all parts of the world where the energy consumption is low and needs can be met even without much use of the fossil fuels, it is the (ci)ties or the modern (ci)vilisation that we are trying to sustain here through all green growth efforts though we know that it is at its very foundation unsustainable.