The era of fossil fuels will go down in history, if any history is preserved, as the point where human ignorance was no longer held back by lack of capacity. We are so doped up on carbon-based fuel that we are completely oblivious to the total dependency our way of life has on it. A simple thought experiment by the way of "what does it take to produce a pencil"[1] will give anyone insight in this. Sometimes I feel like we just don't have the collective mental capacity to handle mega-issues like these. And in the end, just like an addict, unless we kick the habit we are collectively, as a species, going to walk hand in hand into oblivion.
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2153998.I_Pencil