The problem isn't so much the limits of the planet, as it is the reactions of the establishment to threats to their authority. We could certainly manage what will be a long term decline far more effectively, if we didn't have this Tower of Babel syndrome, where all the niches are are talking past each other and out to protect their own turf.

It's like the brain can't get signals from the nerve endings, because all the intermediate steps suck up and kick down, because that's how to get ahead in the bureaucracy.

The mother of all reality checks is in the mail.