"Our society, our material comfort, and our way of life have come at a cost; we have altered the conditions of habitability of the planet."

Absolutely. We made it a lot more habitable for humans. If that wasn't the case there would be many fewer rather than a lot more of us. Nuclear power could have solved the problem of fossil fuels years ago and could still, but fools are afraid of stuff they don't understand. At some point it will be the only option. Germany shut down some of its nukes and its coal burning power plants under pressure from the Greens, and guess where they are getting the natural gas to make up for it? Russia.