GDP is a terrible measure of the health of a nation and the quality of life of its populace though. The USA has some of the highest levels of GDP in the known world and also some of the highest levels of poverty to go with it. To sum it up if you cut down every tree in the country and sold all the wood the stats would say your economy is doing great but the quality of life for your citizens would suffer immeasurably.

I am with you on resource allocation. Climate Change is in fact a feint put in place by the Oil barons so you don;t notice the real problem: finite fuels. There is no debate over the finite levels of hydrocarbons stored in the bowels of the earth and it may be that we have passed the peak of production. We need to make sure that the reserves we have left are spent on manufacturing the things we need to survive afterwards such as cleaner, cheaper renewable energy and localised food production.