So was Asimov being a tool or was that sarcasm?
Unfortunately Asimov was being a tool.
In his “Science” columns in the mag F&SF he predicted that man would consume the entire mass of the solar system in a few hundred years at the rate of growth of the 70s.
I believe he was also the force behind getting the SF writers to take out the public ad against the Vietnam war. He never outgrew his NYC liberalism.