Let's consider one of the largest secondary problems we currently face: Global warming. Two of the main drivers of global warming are methane from large farms and carbon dioxide from burning of organic fuels. Today, we may think of greed as the primary motivating factor that can explain why it is so hard to find consensus solutions to global warming. But the problem's roots (both for methane and CO2) result from the same basic place, which is the improvement of the human condition. I don't think it was possible, in principle, to have predicted global warming in the early days of the industrial revolution. Further, I think that ascribing to malice that which can be ascribed to ignorance is counter productive and dangerous. Foresight is often underutilized, I agree, but it is at least as often unavailable, as some phenomena can only be observed empirically and cannot be predicted.