Thank you, Engr-Ona, for your thoughtful response and professional insight.  As to your final question, I think the evidence thus far is that God does not forcefully prevent our folly.  There are some limits to the harm we can do to God's creation, but by the time those limits are reached I believe we may have destroyed most of human life as well as many other species.  My hope is that God is with us in such a way that we are enabled to renew our covenant with God, the earth, and one another, to address all the "what elses" you mention, to  stop extracting fossil fuels, to value the common good over individual consumer freedom.  If I understand your comment about the negative effects of energy poverty, I hope we can invest our minds and resources in the best forms of renewable energy.