I wholeheartedly agree that pollution and deforestation can be huge problems, although wealth has helped us alleviate much of them. In fact, thanks to the CO2 increase the planet is greener than it was when we first launched observation satellites in 1979.

However, fossil fuels are cheap because they are still abundant AND easy to use. Hydro can be cheap and relatively "clean", but there are only so many rivers to be harvested. Nuclear is also "clean", but as the industry stands right now (uranium), the problem of waste is still highly problemati.

As for wind and solar, they are completely unreliable because 1) they don't give energy 24/7, 2) they ALWAYS need a backup, usually fossil-fueled, 3) their existence is ONLY due to government subsidies (they receive 1200x the funds per MW than fossil fuels) and 4) their construction itself is highly polluting. And don't get me started on its avian genocide...