Less a universal truth, and more a pattern that applies to almost everything: entropy
(Same sort of concept as 'In the end, life comes with a lifespan.')
People's awareness of energy-resource production and the global environment
is much like the pattern of people who end up starting to smoke.
Smoking becomes a way to relieve the stress of adult life and personal strain.
Many kinds of cigarettes are produced, aimed at a variety of consumers.
(Increasing entropy to resolve the gaps.)
But when, along the way, people start feeling their body threatened (entropy depleted in the body), they put effort into solving it.
(1 mg cigarettes, anti-smoking herbs, etc.)
As with every entropy pattern, in the end the solution
isn't a form that removes or cuts off what's increasing entropy (not 'quit smoking'),
but rather finding a new substitute — which is how the smoking issue gets resolved.
(Gaining surplus resources through advances in agriculture → logging → coal → transportation.)
The oil and coal energy resources we use today follow the same pattern, I think.
(Of course this applies beyond energy and cigarettes — to all life-activity.)
And in the end, as expected, the conclusion swings back toward the humanities, self-development, or philosophy.
Something along the lines of: 'Since we never know when we'll die, make every moment of life count.'
At work, when you're doing business modeling, when you're doing branding — before customers churn, before the keywords people associate with your brand shift —
when you spend time with family (while parents are still alive, while the family is still healthy, treat them well),
when you smoke (before your stamina or health goes, before you become mentally dependent or addicted),
when you use energy resources (before you hit a point of no return),
in inter-Korean relations (before the things that would meet their demands — or anything they might trade — run out, prepare a fundamental solution or alternative).
… Finding substitutes is, of course, something that's often beyond an individual's power while living an ordinary day-to-day.
What can help at least a little is this:
don't judge or refine things based on the models you're currently researching or benchmarking from where you stand.
Just as standing still in your current spot will never change you on its own.
