That's a catch 22.
Nothing is going to change until a very significant percentage of the population recognizes just how dire the situation really is.
I agree with you though it will be more like a panic than a light bulb moment.

Porge,

You are too optimistic - and if you weren't posting on TOD, I'd say you don't get it. Not a damn thing is going to change until everyone gets it. "They" are only going to get it when society collapses and people are dying left and right and services have died too. And, even then, there will be a few holdouts who refuse to change paradigms.

There will be no "light bulb moment" before it is too late to transition to anything that is stable-state. The result will be chaos.

Todd

I also think that it will be a panic.
I think you may have misinterpreted my post.
I see what you see out here in suburbia.
Complete denial or if I want to sound more formal "cognitive dissonance".