We all have to eat, and modern societies have been extraordinarily successful in supplying an unprecedented variety of foodstuffs at a generally affordable cost. We have to energize our buildings, our industries, and our transport by incessant flows of fuel and electricity. We have to produce—and renew—the material foundations of our societies by manufacturing, building, and maintenance. And we need adequate infrastructures (schools, health, and elderly care) to educate people and to care for them in sickness and old age. Everything else is secondary.
