I agree that the economic machine looms large in any argument, especially the part of the economy inhabited by whomever is arguing against change.
The world's carbon output is actually the chemical signature of the economic churn of 7.5 billion people. What to do? Can we wait until new technologies replace fossil fuels? Can we afford to subscribe to the fiction of “clean coal”? Can we avoid fixing population growth until its too late?
My family and I are trying to offset all of our personal carbon footprint, but it takes a lot of effort and some money.
Biological systems fail the same way that most other things do: slowly for a long time, then all at once.