Tyler quotes Will

(a) energy is not scarce . . .

(b) a well-functioning price system will shift energy consumption to (cleaner) alternative energy sources . . .

(c) the initial high price of alternative energy will temporarily slow growth, but competition and technological progress will eventually push prices below the historical trend . . .

(d) environmental quality is a global public good, but;

(e) this is most likely to be secured as a consequence of growth

Ho Hum. Nothing novel or insightful here, just common sense, but common sense isn't as common as one could wish.

There are bad points to this good sense. In Tyler's words:

What worries me is that first sentence: "energy is not scarce" -- it also could have been written "destructive energy is not scarce." A world where we solve our energy and environmental problems is also a world where small groups or lone individuals have great power to destroy.

Bad, but also not novel. It has always been so. Over time the size of groups able to do great destruction have decreased, and the destruction they can do has increased. It's another way to say that human productivity has risen due to technology.

It might be worth reviewing the life of Alfred Nobel, who had the same sort of concerns and felt some personal responsibility. His worries seem trivial today, as will ours tomorrow.

That's cold comfort since the stakes keep getting higher along with everything else, but the alternative seems far worse and could only be achieved by staggeringly huge costs. The cure for life is worse than the disease.