200 years ago, the primary source of heat was wood, light was candles, and transportation was horse and sail.
100 years ago, it was a combination of coal and wood, lamps and candles, and trains, horses, sail, and steamboat. Electricity and the automobile were in their infancy.
The people alive at those times had no idea that oil would become the most common fuel for the average person, electricity would be in every home (in developed countries) and that horses would be reserved for pleasure riding. They never imagined that people would routinely fly in airplanes, and that almost all transcontinental crossings (for passengers) would be made that way.
It's human nature for the average person to believe that everything that can be invented, has been invented. But as long as the incentive to the visionaries and dreamers to "build a better mousetrap" isn't taken away, technology will advance.
I'm not sure that man has created all of our energy and environmental problems, but as long as no obstacles are put in his way, I believe that man can find a way to survive.
BTW, I remember. as a teenager, pooling together our resources and putting 50 cents worth of gas in the car for a trip back and forth to the shore. And $5 would last me for the week or more. Of course, someone making $30,000 a year was in the top 5% of income back then, and Diana Ross (of the Supremes) made the news when she bought her mother a mansion for *gasp* $50,000! :lol: