I don't think it's the nature of progress. There's no question we have the _capacity_ to engineer our way out of these problems. They aren't unsolvable. But a lot would have to change before the necessary resources are mobilized against these kind of problems instead of churning out yet more bloat, which, let's face it, is what most of us are doing with our time every day.

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk

I'm not expert enough to say if his technical solutions are correct, but it's a pretty good explication of the problem.