In the 1930's the Germans realised their standard of living could not be sustained given that their agricultural output was maxed out and they were running out of people to sell basic manufactured goods to. A nasty little man and a few dodgy scientists offered a solution that involved the biggest war ever. The rebuild made the cake bigger but sliced it a bit more evenly, hence our grand parents could travel more freely.
Today we have massive populations who aren't going to live at a tenth of US standards, yet the planet is no bigger. Efficiency solutions may come, but you can expect a few fast and easy solutions involving simply grabbing a bomb and moving to where they have air conditioning in the mean time.
How we live and travel now is as unsustainable as century old dreams of treking across Africa with teams of natives to carry your gramophone, dinner service and wine cellar. If we are lucky there will be space for us all on the bus tours, if not we may be going fully funded but all dressed in khaki.
Wishful thinking by air conditioning owners will not change the simple sum of world GDP divided by world population.
Andy
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