Ask Paul Erlich and Julian Simon about how doomsday predictions in 1980 worked out.
...[Erlich wanted to bet] “even money that England will not exist in the year 2000”...
...Somehow a man who has not only erred by the width and breadth of a couple of galaxies, but who has also advised governments to impose population growth limits and advocated “the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food,” is yet considered an essential intellectual, so much so that he remains at Stanford and is still racking up prizes and awards...
Remember his original academic specialty is butterfly population dynamics. If people reacted to change like butterflies he might have a point! People don’t so he doesn’t!