Why shouldn't our civilization be defined by how efficiently we use the energy we gather? Or the lifespan and health of our citizens?

Claiming that the sum of a civilization is how much energy it controls is just a meme from the 50's. It's a shitty, short-sighted metric. One that would consider building a nuclear reactor and dumping the power into a bank of resistors as contributing "more progress" than growing abundant food, or protecting the ecosystem.

It's our civilization, we can define progress however we want.