I'm a fan of Tom Murphy's rational logic. Unlike politicians, priests and prophets, physics doesn't lie.

"That’s how I perceived the tragic irony of having the most-ever people on the planet suffer the worst-ever event: an event brought on precisely because of so many people: a self-fulfilling tragedy that maximizes total suffering as if by dastardly design."

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-06-19/brace-for-peak-impact/

"Maximisation of total suffering" hmmmmmm, even though I'm a cynical romantic, I'm not convinced that is the only fate we can choose from. We can and must do better. There are plenty of sustainable ancient civilisations that managed long-lasting cultures without fossil fuels.. Even highly complex urban ones like the Mayans.

But the numbers we face are daunting. Here in NL, the land carrying capacity of 1870 was 4-5 mln mouths yet we are now heading for 20 mln...so the question is how do we shed 15 mln. people and how much resource time do we have to achieve this? Spoiler: not enough. It's why I have decided to immigrate. Move to a somewhat less vulnerable spot now I still can.