From what FW teaches, it would take too much energy to create a livable world without population (and business) being pretty much as it is now. No telling what energy supports that, but the alternative seems less feasible.
Your post puts me in mind of my road project. Filling potholes in front of my house with paper pulp/latex paint mix. The cars drive over it and flatten it down, and it is thence impermeable and strong. Nowhere as effective as asphalt gravel in terms of efficiency, but my example is to see how it would work in theory if every property owner did the same,
So I struggle over eons to fill a few dings, and stand and wonder when and how I’ll ever do the rest. Then one day I hear a truck stop and activity in the road. Seems the Dep of Transp, after 6 years not seeing them do this, sent a couple men to dump asphalt gravel in the two largest potholes. My vanity tells me that they saw my lame struggle and bemusedly pitched in to help. One of the men was whistling a little tune…