But there _are_ "such people". The wealthy elite, to be exact. They can order the government to do as they please. If the situation is dire, and their collective several trillion dollars are going to go up in smoke in their lifetime, you can bet they'd ram whatever programs they like through the government to avert that. Take the progressive icon such as Jeff Bezos. $120 billion fortune, trillion-dollar company employing 800K people. All of this is entirely dependent (presumably) on the world order not collapsing by the end of the century. And it's not like the guy is illiterate or anything - he's into space exploration and building hundred thousand year clocks. The amount he pledges to fight climate change? Less than 10% of his wealth. Comparably wealthy Gates, who can't shut up about climate change, spends relatively little on it in his philanthropic efforts. Barack Obama, who should be supremely informed on the topic, bought a property near the ocean for $12M. I refuse to believe that these three people in particular are uninformed. I also refuse to believe that they wouldn't be able to effect change if they really wanted to. And by "change" I don't mean just speaking from a podium like you see them do all the time. I mean real, actual change: fund programs, push sensible stuff through the government, etc, etc.

The rational conclusion I make from all this: the rumors of our impending demise have been greatly exaggerated, if all people with means and influence do to avert it is read bullshit from a teleprompter every now and then.