It's not a price that had to be paid, though.

If the West had pursued electrification as hard as China did, they wouldn't have even been interested in starting a war with Iran in the first place because oil would be less of a critical resource for the empire. They wouldn't need to prop up Israel as their unsinkable aircraft carrier, they wouldn't need to kidnap Maduro, none of this shit would even be happening.

But instead they clung to oil even as it became impossible to sustain, and now millions must die for nothing.