Solarpunk

I'm somewhat more optimistic, but some things are easier than others.

The transition to environmentally friendly energy production will happen, because it's cheaper. It ought to have happened sooner, because when accounting for the true costs of fossil fuels and other kinds of pollution it always was cheaper to use renewables. It just didn't appear so.

Similarly, I believe the costs of not doing the right things for work automation, fixing inequality and even misinformation, will eventually prove to be higher than just doing things right. It just doesn't show up as a direct cost at the moment.

The key to understanding the effects and true costs lie in education. Thankfully more people are better educated today than 30-40-50 years ago, so eventually and hopefully we will soon have politicians and other leadership who are also able to see past the direct costs. I don't think it's a gradual change. It'll happen quite fast with the change of a generation. The last dinosaurs and their voters will disappear and younger and better educated leaders with more realistic ideas will prevail.

But no, it's not a job for engineers. Education is the most important part of all this.