It seems to me that it is almost always possible to do with less technology and its consequent environmental and social destruction, by re-thinking the kinds of human skills technology and its hierarchies of social order have supplanted. Just as it is possible to climb without protection, if you lower your grade and increase your skill, discipline, and training, it seems to me you can do something similar in principle on a larger scale. This requires altering the means of production by changing both the technology and the social organizations that reciprocally sustain each other---and brutalize both human society and the environment. This isn't a grand plan, but rather a kind of evolution of many different approaches that all share a common ethic.
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This is very interesting and reminds me of the Buddhist concept of applying 'skillful means' to our innumerable perceptual challenges.
But I wonder, to indulge in a bit of philosophical rambling, if the sort of sharpening of effort you describe is something our minds are capable of for a sustained period?
In science fiction novels, it's typical for aliens to be superior to humans in two ways: 1.) technological and 2.) mental agility and focus. In the best works (Stanislaw Lem's Solaris for example), the greater mental subtlety is the more important element, the thing that confounds the would-be heros and heroines.
I think these novelists may understand something fundamental about the limits of human cognitive abilities. Chomsky has also touched upon this in various essays and remarks.
Of course, I have no facts one way or the other to support my opinion but I find myself believing that the kinds of planetary work required and changes necessary to first off, forestall collapse and later, create a thriving and equitable human civilization may, just may, exceed the carrying capacity of our minds.
Hopefully this isn't the case and I'm underestimating our latent ability for intelligent organization, fair governance and skillfully applied tech.
After all, the dinosaurs got a run of about 180 million years; we should hope to last a little more than a piddling 10,000 in the 'civilized' state.
In any event, fool's errand or not, there's no defensible choice other than to continue working to make things better.
DRM
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