Fact is that we're way too optimistic as a species and we're unable to accept that anything could happen that might be worse than what we've seen in our lifetim

Fact is that we're way too optimistic as a species and we're unable to accept that anything could happen that might be worse than what we've seen in our lifetimes. See Fukushima and the flood walls. For some reason being proactive is seen as wasteful and pointless, even though it's often far cheaper and easier than dealing with the consequences of not doing anything. People complain about how expensive doing anything about climate change is and that it's a waste of money, conveniently ignoring the order of magnitude increase of cost we're facing if we don't do it.