Why civilization continues to attempt to understand where we came from instead of worrying about where we are going

Why do we study history? We history because the best predictor of what will happen in the future is what has happened in the past. For instance, what would happen is America stared hiring foreign mercenaries to fight wars in place of American soldiers? Terrible things would happen. In every empire or society of the past, hiring mercenaries has usually been a terrible decision that reduces the loyalty of the troops and results in desertion or revolts.

Will gay marriage ever be legal in America? Yes. If you look at past civil rights issues like female voting and segregation, the kind of enormous groundswell of opinion that we are seeing now inevitably leads to change in policy.

What will earth look like in the future? Mars. Mars is earth without a magnetic field, and, subsequently, without a "greenhouse" atmosphere.

Speaking of greenhouses, is the earth getting warmer? Yes. Is it warmer than ever? No, but it is warming up faster than at any point in the recent past. I think it's good to know that.

And BTW evolution itself is studies extensively in bacteria/viruses. Viruses evolve very rapidly due to their short generational period. So knowing how evolution works can help us immensely in predicting virus mutations and creating vaccines.

Hope that helps.