We are biological creatures, following biological desires, is my answer. It is all connected together. I can understand that there are larger cycles going on. Yes, it is. Everything I do seems to be composed of my attractions and rejections, I look at other people and see the same thing.
Fossil fuels have powerful attractions to cold naked apes who have cut down too many trees.
Their ability to be refined into consistant forms that can be stored and pumped and spark ignited in furnaces with thermostats is very attractive, ditto for engines and move heavy objects and ourselves is very attractive, the warm house is here and the food is there. A common instinct is that the future takes care of itself. Take the game and gathering in this area and move on, there will be something over the next hill, what you have left behind will rejenerate. Have just as many kids as you can manage, they die so easy. Ignoring the future was a safe bet for many thousands of years, because our actions fit into the future.