If we can't do that now, what makes you think we can do it when the population grows exponentially?
I think the real problem is that humans are really good at manipulating "hope", but we suck at factual risk-based analyses. Cognitive Dissonance seems to be a global phenomenon these days. It's not an effective coping mechanism for individuals, but it's even worse when entire nations have that mentality, and use it to make political decisions.