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passive_fist comments on Blind Spot: Malthusian Crunch - Less Wrong
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Because 'Seek and ye shall find' is not always true. If a resource becomes so scarce as to cripple the functioning of society, it may be already too late to start searching for an alternative.
It is best to have foresight and start investigating solutions to problems before they become, you know, actual problems. It's irresponsible to do otherwise. As mwengler pointed out, markets can't see that far into the future.
It is, of course, best. The problem is that we do not have it. At least for the last few centuries humans have shown remarkable lack of ability to predict where the twists and turns of technology will lead.
To use the classic example,
In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure. -- The London Times, 1894
This isn't about technology though. It's about resources. The London Times correctly identified that if the proliferation of horses were to continue, the streets would be covered by manure. The solution to this problem was to stop using horses, which is exactly what happened, although of course not everyone was able to see it at that time.
And that's precisely the point. People investigated alternative means of transportation while they still had the luxury of doing so. Not because of fear of manure, of course, but because they realized that horses were non-ideal in many other ways. Imagine what would have happened if the streets had been covered by nine feet of manure, and only then people started thinking about ways of getting out of that mess (literally).