I hear you say, "but, but Player, the second law of...", nah ah, no buts, definitely no double buts!
Conservation - If supply can't keep up with demand, prices go up until demand and supply meet at an equilibrium. Even if prices are capped or set wrong, there will be scarcity, the cost of demand being higher than supply will still be paid, except instead of paying in money it will be paid in time spent in lines and queues.
Efficiency - We are incredibly inefficient, but we improve over time, and while we may never reach 100% efficiency we will also have room to improve. In this way doubling efficiency, can effectively and relatively double our energy supply. Utilizing our inefficient ways to improve the lives of the world such that people don't have to worry about war, violence, and mere survival, they can spend their time worrying about energy efficiency and how to improve that efficiency.
Cooperation - Efficiency can only take you so far, what takes us farther is to integrate different energy sources towards an end. For example a man walking to work has lost a lot of his time, where as aided by a machine such as a bike improves his energy and time efficiency, and the bike itself is a product of other energies, such as that used to bend, weld, and cast metal, in this way the energy used to create the bike is also used in getting the man to work needing less energy to do so over all. Another example is the hybrid electric vehicle which utilizes regenerative breaking to capture and reuse energy that would normally be lost. In much the same respect to Division of Labor which makes cooperation increase productive output.
Cooperation comes from efficiency and efficiency from conservation. With prices rising an incentive is created to try and get more out of what we have, as we hit limits in efficiency and prices rise, other energy sources become relatively cheaper to integrate and improve efficiency overall.
In this way life is a Super Task! Consuming a portion of energy in order to gain more from the existing energy. The best explanation of what a Super Task is can be found here:
Even as the universe goes cold and loses energy, the life of the universe could very well have moved into a virtual world run by a powerful computer, the people in that world wouldn't experience the universe as slowing down and losing energy because perception of passing time is relative to motion, the computer would only progress the simulation when it gets the energy to do so, and a universe that is slowing down wouldn't reveal that to those living in the simulation.
One way or another, life can escape what is said to be the harsh reality of the universe.
Be weary of the doomsayers whom think we need to go back against civilization in order to survive, their base concern has always been in war, politics, and power and they utilize fear towards that end.