I don't know what "limitless growth" means, honestly. Growth in what? You can have economic growth with a plateaued or even declining population. We were never going to have infinite people, infinite energy use, infinite land use, infinite food consumption, whatever.

I don't think people are going to embrace austerity voluntarily. Emissions are already declining in many rich countries, anyway. India, China etc remaining poor was never going to be our plan. Nor are Americans or Europeans going to want to live like a poor person in India in 1980. People like wealth. Comfort, convenience, status goods, travel, a varied diet, etc.