My thoughts on this issue are mixed. I agree that predicting (or projecting data to future outcomes) can foster action to counteract an undesirable harm (such as starvation). However, a society can be locked into a paradigm of production and reaction that is unsustainable overall, such as, continuous growth using carbon-intensive fossil fuels within a closed finite system (our planet). For example, starvation was thwarted by using fossil fuels to make fertilizer and power diesel machines used to grow, harvest, and transport food to an ever-expanding human population. Not to mention the clearing of forests for open land to support the overburden of continuous growth. Even if humans discover a form of dense energy production to replace fossil fuels the insanity of continuous growth on a finite planet would still persist. We need a radical change in our philosophy of living overall more than we need fixes to glitches in a fundamentally unsustainable philosophy of continuous growth that is inconsistent with the fundamental laws of nature.