When there's a flood coming and the waters are up to your ankles, you don't start swimming; when the water reaches your knees, it's still not time to swim; when the water gets up to your ass, that's when it's time to start swimming. When things get bad enough, types of action that were previously impossible become possible.
Dougald Hine in his book "At work in the ruins" quoting Vanessa Machado de Oliveira of "Hospicing modernity".