Reddit reviews The Economic Growth Engine: How Energy and Work Drive Material Prosperity

First off, I don't see how that is helpful considering industrial output and per capita consumption are already considered far too high to be sustainable. In fact, since at least the '70's many environmental economists have been calling for planned economic degrowth in the face of unsustainable utilization rates of not just fossil fuels, but other natural resources as well.

Second of all, I think there's a strong argument to be made that high-tech renewable energy is not up to the task of supplying us the the kind of energy we're used to, nor will it ever be. Yet that very likely contingency isn't even being considered in public discourse.

I still agree with the central message of the report, though. Cutting emissions is the best path to prosperity. I just don't think that prosperity and growth have to go hand in hand. The rather standard (and silly) assumption that economic growth is somehow independent of energy needs to be discarded. It is not tenable. And it implies, wrongly, that energy related emissions can be reduced without consequences for growth.