Check this article.
In short, the article says that the transition to Green Energy that can sustain our current way of life and de-coupling from oil will take 50-100 years at our current production capabilities (we need copper for cables, we need materials for turbines etc). And we do not have 50-100 years. The Green Energy myth is dangerous. Not because we don't need Green Energy but because it is a case of "too little, too late".
And no, it is NOT a pro-oil article.
Dr. Michaux (whom I have worked with in Liege 7 years ago) is not pro-oil or fossil fuel. What Dr. Michaux is saying is "We cannot cut our dependency from oil quick enough to stop the devastating effects of Climate Change because setting up Renewables to replace it will take decades that we don't have."
It is an alarming message if you want, a bleak one. But the numbers are that bad. This is indeed the situation and wishful thinking that we have a chance to transition while climate change already destroys crops at unprecedented rate is dangerous.
The solution is to invest HEAVILY in MITIGATION of the climate change threats. Also, A STRONG change of life that will impact all of us a lot ... but will be much less painful than if we continue in our current path.
Now, alhoon's take on the "We should make drastic changes and we should do them now" is:
1. we should go for rapid and steep power cost increase, with government support for the poor to be able to afford it but with heavy hits for luxuries. Heated pools? AC 10 Celcius (18F) below outside temperature? LoL. Energy for those things should be extremely expensive. Recycling aluminium instead of the energy-intensive production.
2. transitioning to (unfortunately unhealthy) GM food that can survive draughts and heat one year and then floods and ice the next year, etc. Diversification and protection of the food sources we have and trying to keep Food security that is already being threatened by climate change. I hate the idea that I would have to feed on GMO and die from cancer at 65 and my kids having a much increased chance to have three arms. But I dislike starvation more and this is where we are at this point.
See how olive oil production is falling around the Mediterranean the past few years.
3. Focus on things produced locally to limit energy use to bring them from abroad. And learn to pay much more for things because they have to be transported. A +50$ price on iPhones because they have to be transported all the way from China could be mitigated by changing your iPhone every 4 years instead of every 2, unless you are rich.
We have to learn to live with less because that's what the earth can support.
4. A strong (and I mean strong) global reaction to China and India, to force them to stop polluting like crazy, explaining to them that "sorry, we know it sucks for you that you will not be able to afford the standard of living we got in the west in the polluting years, but if you keep doing that, we will all die."
5. Focus on mining what we need to make a quick transition to renewable energy. Increase the mines world-wide. Low population, metal-rich countries (Canada, Russia, Australia) should rump up mining. Open more mines. Many more. Bring in workers from poor countries, train them, and send them to the mines. Open more mineral resources universities (or hire the Greek ones, the majority of which work on other fields because we don't have mines for the engineers we produce).
And when opening mines, focus on humans-first policies.
Again, sucks for some Cariboo in Canada that their entire ecosystem will have to go away and they will become extinct, but it is either the Cariboo or us and the Cariboo at this point.
Tree-huggers can keep the DNA of those Cariboo and clone them in the future, after we survive as a species.