In a best *utopian* scenario, how long would it take for our civilization to "recover"?

Question

a) If we stop using petroleum tomorrow, and switch to: solar, wind, lightning, thermal, wave, water, etc. energy sources.

b) If tomorrow we introduce a global plan of environmental recovery; reforestation, dedesertification, etc.

c) If tomorrow the population starts transforming from "quantitative" to "qualitative."

Answer 1

A more realistic scenario goes like this.

Starting now, over the next 50-100 years we phase out most use of fossil fuels for power (as opposed to plastics, etc).  Maybe we still use it for a few things like airplanes.  We also get a lot more efficient at doing things with less energy.

We deal with some effects of global warming, but they're not catastrophic.  In a few hundred years the Earth (having heaved a sigh of relief) gets things back to normal.

It took several hundred years to build Notre Dame cathedral.  The early workers knew there was no chance they'd see the finished product.  Didn't stop them from working their butts off.

Answer 2

No petroleum, no transportation, recovery, well we are much safer now than we were 40 years ago.  You want utopian conditions you need to find another planet. If each person stops using a stove, electricity, cars and rails, nothing moves, no produce no lumber nothing moves.  No crops, planes, travel, quantity vs. quality---bad question.  Famine is the bottom line.

Answer 3

too many IFs...........

but IF anybody comes with scenario solving all IFs you've mentioned  -  he will not receive Oscar for scenario but Nobel prize !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

Sorry to say but Utopia will never happen. It's all about competition. From higher life forms all the way down to bacteria, and as long as theres competition there can be no Utopia.