Its probably easier to fix things before they are underwater. But we both know thats not going to happen.

We're in the "observing the problem" period still, we are inclined to act a bit but not to the level we should be. We know what's coming but we're kinda seeing how long we can wait until we absolutely have to do something, usually after disaster strikes and the damage is too big to ignore.

And even after the damage has been done, we seem to be unwilling to do what's necessary to restore things to how they were before - see how emergency relief after floods/hurricanes etc works, even in so called "developed" countries.