as an EX oil man ...I have found this debate interesting . I would say that one almost constant ( not accounting for milankovitch cycles or polar circulatory effects, supervolcano eruptions affecting climate or dare I say asteroid strikes and catastrophic events) is the variety of energy that comes from our sun. To use up fossil fuels only takes from a solar source of energy whilst there is more than enough on a daily basis to use that energy directly. Sure we might not get enough every day at the moment to power our little island but that is more the fault of us not taking the advantages we have with wind and tidal. It saddens me when countries like South africa who have vast opportunities or solar power have never invested in the instant resource they have available. But eventually the changes will happen flexible cheaper solar panels will alter many things. I hope that the way forward will be industry that modifies to use renewable it is a transition and it may well be that countries previously outranked by oil producing countries may one day be able to supply energy to the world.
This is going to be one of the most uncomfortable periods in human history because we do not take well to transitions from one modality to another. But Putin has exposed the fragility of the reliance on "cheap" fuel and this has pushed the agenda in favour of making this transition towards using solar power be that from wind, tidal or panels. I am sure the economics of fuel have relied too heavily on evaluated their worth according to a simple calculation of how much energy verse how must cost of extraction. Now there are other values we have to ,at the very least accept,that it is just much cleaner, environmentally sound, qualitative in life and living , to use the less cheap (initial cost) option encourage people to consume less and encourage expansion of a greener economy.
CO2 is a gas that increases temperature in our atmosphere so let's just try to reduce is as fast as possible in the hope that the world we share has a greater chance to recover . If we do have to use fossil fuels then let's improve economy of how we use them and keep working on alternatives. True yes the world has been through many of these rapid changes over 1000's of years if not millions but at the same time they usually do result in mass extinction events. The natural world finds a rebalance but in the process thousands of species are lost. We may be adaptable as a species and I am sure a few will survive but it would be better if we could accept the need to use the suns energy in a more reflective and efficient way. Oil and coal still "costs" the earth millions of tons of energy to produce Gaia hypothesis would insist that the earth cost is as much a consideration as the cost to us. It is a hard notion to accept how imperceptibly and insignificant tiny we are compared to earth history but we are impacting negatively and making ourselves too self important, we can help to fi it so we should. Each of us starts with our own lives.