However, if you apply Landauer's principle, current factoring algorithms would require enough energy to boil all oceans on the earth, that's a lot even compared to the US's energy supply.
So algorithmic improvements are the real danger basically. Even if we discovered a decryption method now, and immediately everyone stopped using RSA, there would still be an immense impact because all the past encrypted traffic that someone might have stored somewhere suddenly becomes decryptable. And usually, traffic from 20 years ago is still relevant today.