More than a quarter of a century ago, United Nations environmental summits warned urgently: We have run out of time.
And from politics of all possible parties.
Some clairvoyant warnings are much older.
Is it human to only react shortly before twelve, or even afterwards?
Now the UN Secretary-General is saying that we are on the expressway to climate hell – with our foot on the accelerator.
So has everything been fruitless?
You can't say that at all: more than just an awareness of the truly global problem has been created across the world.
Agreements and claims have also been made – both at national and international level – which, of course, are fraught with all the usual difficulties: Great powers remain great powers, or at least they want to remain so, and the so-called developing countries are also striving for the same level of prosperity as the former ones acquired colonial powers.
But the fact that a lot of this thinking has to change has already seeped in.
The only question is whether the apocalyptic rhetoric, which can hardly be surpassed, will spark a new will to unite or lead to a deadening in a crucial phase.
Even if the worst forecasts have to be backed up scientifically, there is no way around persuasion and negotiation.