Inferno

Did God know what he was doing when he created the world, then added people, then gave people the ability to destroy the earth and self-destruct?  Dan Brown's Inferno has sparked my interest in questions such as these.  It seems as though we are headed to a bad place with no light at the end of the tunnel.  I am also challenged because there are some very logical ideas that point to terrible methods of dealing with this problem, particularly wiping out a significant amount of the population.  Now, I a a believer in makin sacrifices if it is for the greater good, but can this apply to sacrificing so many people for the good of our world and humanity's future?  If you look at this from a purely logical perspective, it actually (and scarily) makes some sense.  Sacrifice some people now for the prosperity of future generations as well as saving our planet from destruction.  But is this what God intended?  If we are not supposed to sacrifice ourselves, are we to just continue down the path of destruction?
Today, we have been exposed to more sustainable ways of development, but this is very expensive and far from being the norm.  There really does not seem to be a right solution to this problem.  Inferno is a great story because it asks us what we can and should sacrifice for the greater good, and what God intends for us to do in that situation.