Wrong understanding -> wrong action -> wrong outcome. Belief that you can predict the end of the world and that we need to create policies to stop an imagined apocalypse can and do cause real problems. The Population Bomb led to the One Child Policy and caused the very problem it was trying to solve. Anti-nuclear activists fought one of the cleanest energies on the planet to 'save the planet' and ended up doing tremendous damage to the planet they were trying to save (they are still doing it). Mao's Red Guards believed that capitalism was evil and that only collectivism could save China and they helped cause massive starvation and famine across the countryside. History is chock-full with people promising to save us all from the end of the world and doing massive damage instead. Beware of do-gooders baring gifts.