...It was also stated that humans tend to wait until something absolutely must be done before they do it...
Yes, humans have not evolved sufficiently to be concerned with anything more than our immediate survival, barely past being cave dwellers. Perhaps in a further 10,000 years we will be smart enough to care about the survival of future generations.
That seems to be the new age approach to worry about future generations. Any thoughts that future generations wont even have use for what we are using. How ridiculous would you have sounded to put limits on blacksmiths in the 1700's so future generations would have iron for their wagon wheels or stopped the industrial revolution due to the smoke from all the coal fired factories destroying the planet. No one did anything and guess what, we are still here. Regardless of the what we are using, we can use it and when we use all of it (Which I never think we will), we will probably be ready to want something else better anyway. Man will never hinder future generations. The planet and its might such as natural disasters, now that might put a kink in our progress as humans. Something else to consider, no matter how much trash we make, it all was from here. All the plastic. all the steel, all the trash. We imported none of it from other planets. We just changed its form to suit our needs. It will go right back to what it was in the end.
Do some reading about Easter Island, or even soil nutrient depletion with conventional industrial agriculture.
There are plenty of limits to natural systems that we rely on, and duplication of many natural systems using technology is a waste of money and natural resources.