> Why can’t we or won’t we save ourselves?

Because we only care about the short term. The very short term.

It's a great paradox that many philosophies tell us to only care about the present moment ("seize the day!") when in fact many if not all of our problems come from that exact behavior.

What we want, we want it now, and if a price will have to be paid in the future, whatever the actual amount, we regard it as zero. But we're wrong.