Wake up call

In a class on climate change in the developing world we discussed some solutions that could save populations from dying in the Maldives due to rising sea levels and sinking cities. An array of ideas were suggested from a "one-child" policy, under water cities, and alternative planet etc. For me and my group we struggled with question how do we make people care? What is a big enough wake up call. There are so many things that us as GECS majors learn daily that adds to the urgency to act and to change. One friends suggested there must be a disaster --not a gradual, ecosystem disaster like the extreme doubts in California right now, but like the 9-11, a disaster that is abrupt and kills a lot of people. That could be an effective wake up call. In our cynical flow of discussion we might have briefly (jokingly) conspired eco-terrorism too..
The article is bringing up for me the power of such crises. Why in the depths of crisis and mourning do we also find an appreciation for life. Is it out of our capacity to remember the inevitable cycle of life and death without such dramatic outbreak?
"a critical examination of killing, of dying, of letting live and letting die in modern global politics. this just might, I thought contribute to our sensibility of caring about human finitude. But then, perhaps, I was wrong.