The human brain is not evolved to cope with complexity, so we seek simplistic ideas and run from any attempt to grapple with reality. This article, though well-intentioned, falls into the standard trap. First of all, the article is correct: humans are essentially large children, incapable of making adequate decisions in any area of life. Hence fast fashion, the obesity epidemic, the mindless toxic trash people imagine to be "entertainment," etc. But on a major point, the article makes the same mistake Malthus and all the other resource-evaporation doom-mongers made: to project into the future the trends of today. We do not choke to death in soot-filled streets any more because while people in the early 20th century were worried about running out of coal, we no longer use coal. In reality, technologies do have the potential to improve things: cars no longer belch out unfiltered toxic fumes and, absurd US gas-guzzlers aside, travel enormously further per liter than was the case even as recently as the 1970s. As a result, our outputs now consume far less energy per unit than anyone ever projected. So straight-line trend projections are foolish and always wrong. That said, our baby-brains are incapable of wisdom, so we are indeed denuding the oceans and despoiling the land. But that's not going to change if by some impossible magic everyone said, "leave the poor as they are today, because we in the developed world are comfortable and safe." Humans are fundamentally short-term herd animals incapable of wisdom. Nothing proves this more than people in the West who enjoy all the benefits of past growth telling the world's poor and insecure that they can't catch up because it would inconvenience those of us who have full stomachs.