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.
I think we're in vehement agreement. It might not be obvious, though. Perhaps my labels are not clear. Incompetence is when you do something bad but didn't realize it at the time. Malice is when you realized it but didn't care. You're right that malice often starts out as incompetence. At first we didn't know that methane and CO2 could be bad. That was ignorance or incompetence. Then we knew, but it was too hard/unprofitable to change the way things were done. That's not ignorance, now that's malice. Standing by can be as bad as actively doing harm oneself. If we don't believe that then we'll be utterly doomed by tragedies of the commons. Definitely. Even if we eliminated all malice (ha!), incompetence is often unavoidable. Which is why it's a good thing that the universe is vast and we have lots of opportunity to recover from missteps.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.
Yes, fortunately, for reasons of mathematical necessity, we live in a world dominated by negative feedback. The worst case scenario for global warming is that it creates a positive feedback loop when the warming climate starts to release gas trapped in the oceans and tundras. There, we might find out what its like to live in an alternate stability. Let's hope not. And in the meantime vote for candidates that understand that how we got here is less important than how we move forward.Which is why it's a good thing that the universe is vast and we have lots of opportunity to recover from missteps.