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How much and what kind of energy should the civilization consume, if one aims at preserving global stability of the environment and climate? Here we quantify and compare the major types of energy fluxes in the biosphere and civilization. It is shown that the environmental impact of the civilization consists, in terms of energy, of two major components: the power of direct energy consumption (around 15×10¹²W, mostly fossil fuel burning) and the primary productivity power of global ecosystems that are disturbed by anthropogenic activities. This second, conventionally unaccounted, power component exceeds the first one by at least several times. It is commonly assumed that the environmental stability can be preserved if one manages to switch to “clean”, pollution-free energy resources, with no change in, or even increasing, the total energy consumption rate of the civilization. Such an approach ignores the fact that …