This underscores the crux of the issue. Our collective response to curbing emissions has been lackluster, largely due to the fact that the argument for it being beneficial hasn't sufficiently swayed a significant number of people. The case asserting that AI R&D poses an existential risk will be even harder to make. It's hard to enforce a ban when a large part of the population, and perhaps entire countries, do not believe the ban is justified. This contrasts with the near-universal agreement surrounding the prohibition of chemical and biological weapons, or the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation, where the consensus is considerably stronger.