I think many people struggle without a straight line cause and effect. Climate change is the result of complex interacting factors.
You've also got this overlay of job security. "Rising sea levels and storm surges are all well and good but how do I feed my kids if the coal-fired station I work in gets shut down?"
But in the long-term, I think we're already fucked by the end of the century. Not extinct-fucked, but way-of-life fucked. Fighting over resources is going to lead to more wars, and serious ones. There's a political shitshow happening over both the Nile and the Mekong at the moment. What happens if Taiwan destroys the Three Gorges Dam? Monumental loss of life, global economic collapse, tens of millions of Chinese citizens run out of power and water, Taipei glassed.
If the Gulf Stream goes to shit and Atlantic fish stocks collapse, I guess there will be fighting between North American and South / Central American countries over fish. Already Chinese fishing fleets border the Galapagos Islands, which is very far away from their home ports.
Oh, here you go, its worse than I'd guessed:
https://www.arcticiceproject.org/the-looming-threat-what-happens-if-the-gulf-stream-shuts-down/Imagine what we are seeing in Tuvulu occurring in somewhere like Bangladesh. A hundred million people up to their knees in sea water. Mass deaths, millions of people trying to get into India, China, Central Asia.
