In about that same timeframe, Y2K is also really good example. Nothing of note really happened. But if people had just ignored it a lot of things probably would have.
But it is a great example. I still run into people who recall Y2K as an example of much ado about nothing. No, no!! It wasn't an issue for you because many people worked hard to prevent the problems.
Those problems were not terribly complex just pervasive and critical, requiring a high LOE. It wasn't like a huge moon-landing engineering problem to be held up as some accomplishment of humanity, more akin fixing a lot of dumb Challenger o-ring problems before a blow-up.
There were a few jokes about it in the newspapers but by and large the public just ignored it.
I work on climate and hope / hoped that the same would happen, but it's looking like it will soon get everybody's attention regardless.
Climate change will impact companies in different ways at different times. Oil companies, for instance, are incentivized to ramp up production as much as possible while also diversifying.
The way to get all companies to take appropriate actions is to not allow them to externalize costs. That means a significant carbon tax.
People ask why they don't hear about it anymore -- oh, it's because we listened and banned CFCs and fixed the hole.
Unfortunately those fixes are slated for Humanity 2.0, Homo extinctus.
Some countries have not heard the call yet it seems (ones that like their role as perpetual victims and blame everyone else but themselves), but even just five years down the road, the world will already look very different for all the effort that's being made.
If you are prepared, nothing interesting happens, life moves on, people opened a notebook and pressed a few buttons.
If you are not prepared, the texas grid freezes, people die, people lose their savings, and "nobody could have imagined it would be this bad".
In strategic sysadmin and cybersecurity this is staple thinking, and a useful part of what I teach now.
Problem for vigilant thinkers is the rewards, as explained in TFA, are perverse.
People are content with technology to be magical. They don't see the millions of people quietly repairing it and planning to keep it all going smoothly.
To "bosses" cybersecurity only bring them problems, and cost them money apparently doing nothing. The same for any defence force, until you need it.
Did some nice interviews for international sysadmin day last summer [1].
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22663095-left-of-bang
You guys are all in your Y2K underground bunkers still, right?
Disclaimer: I was part of that effort. The funny thing was that I was brought back to a previous client to fix something that my previous efforts had literally caused. Took me 20 minutes to fix it once I saw what the problem was. And then there was a "while you're here, can you take a look at this ..." That lasted about two years until they closed the department and moved it to NY, NY.
At least I got credit in terms of billable hours.
"we were all worried about the ozone and nothing happened, this is just a repeat and people will stop talking about it any time now"
and my response is "'Nothing' happened because the governments acted fast and turned it around so now it's mostly just boring stuff like catching some factoryy that decides to go cheap and use banned chemicals to save a buck"