And by "hard", I mean "fundamentally life-altering for millions if not billions of people".

And that's the good alternative.

The rugged individualism and economic freedom most singularly espoused by the USA and aspired to by much of the free world will, I think, prove to be a historical anomaly. In order to sustain billions of people, much more control will be required - from energy production to waste management to pollution restrictions.

No, you cannot have a petrol car. No, you cannot leave your AC running in 40 degree C heat all day and all night - you must either move to a house that is naturally cooled, or get sweaty. No, you cannot blindly landfill all your rubbish - you must recycle, and you must recycle 10x as much as you presently do. No, UK Government, you cannot build more coal power stations; you must generate electricity using carbon-neutral methods. Yes, EU, you must develop low-temperature fusion reactors, and yes, EU, you will have to spend many hundreds of billions to do so.

Energy is the key. Once you have cheap energy, you can do things like cracking seawater for hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars, and you can indulge in energy-intensive activities like super-clean recycling plants for everything from paper to cars to computers.

Of course, those on the Right will deny all this, but seriously - fuck those guys.