“ not only by the emergence during that period of unprecedented circumstances, but also (as we shall see) by the development of new and destructive combinations of problems and reactions, which individually are firmly rooted in the history and traditions of Republican Rome.
Excerpt FromRome in the Late Republic, Mary Beard
Not only are the problems destructive but note the warning that the reactions also. I have been thinking, is it possible that our efforts, mostly around wind and solar, are also destructive rather than helpful? As you may have read, the energy produced by wind and solar projects, instead of replacing fossil fuel use, has been added to it, making the problems worse. The strong statement would be that the money and human effort devoted to wind and solar projects is a waste, A form of Jevon's Paradox.
In economics, the Jevons paradox occurs when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the falling cost of use induces increases in demand enough that resource use is increased, rather than reduced.