And the bad news is...
They're very likely to do something Otterish, i.e. "futile and stupid" to try to fix it.
Build nuclear power plants? Hell, no. But we'll burn our food for energy, make light bulbs illegal, destroy the pitiful remains of our automobile industry, and watch countries like China laugh themselves sick as we shoot ourselves in the foot.
The sad fact is that our policies are mostly set for political reasons by people who, for the most part, possess the science and engineering knowledge of cargo cult members. The worldview, too.