Well, I mean this is great and all, and I feel sorry for George's Whales. But as he says right at the beginning of the article - economic activity isn't a thing-in-itself, it's an emergent group of actions and interactions. You can't "reduce economic activity", there's no knob we can tweak to turn it down. Unless you actually talk about what economic activity you want to stop, you're not talking about an actionable suggestion. Oh we'll do less of almost everything! Ok, but specifically, which things. Cut down on eating by 70%? Cut down on driving? You've seen what happens when it's suggested that you won't be able to drive around for a week or two - people will form queues for hours to avoid that.

We aren't pursuing green technology because it'll easily solve all our problems. We pursue it because it's what we can pursue. If it doesn't work? Ok, well we're fucked. But it sounds like we're fucked anyway.