The problem is the signal to noise ratio. Every day you have catastrophic predictions from asteroids, super volcanoes, big earthquakes, new ice age, peak oil, loss of ozone layer, loss of biodiversity, solar storms, ... All with dire consequences.

Each of these events would cost a few (hundreds of?) billions to address or mitigate. It requires a super human intelligence to separate the chaff from the wheat. And this is hard to know what is scaremongering, and what is really dangerous.

> And this is hard to know what is scaremongering, and what is really dangerous.

Indeed. Also there are increasing evidence that many scientific studies aren't reproducable.

We need a better System to identify 'useful signals' among noises. But in our current socio-economic structure, this topic never comes up as the most important issue. Abraham Lincoln founded National Science Foundation that laid out a solid ground work for this movement, but nobody(correct me if I am wrong) picked it up where he left of and pushed Scientific inquiry as one of our top agenda.