I once assumed that small incremental environmentally conscious steps in how people lived, worked, and played were inevitable. I'm talking smaller, more energy efficient, and safer vehicles, vegetable protein substitutes in place of industrialized meat products becoming generally accepted and even the norm, and I even had naive presumptions about some imminent expansion of mass transportation because it simply made more economic sense.
But that was all before I learned the power of 
I thought we wouldn't see macro-scale effects from global warming for another 20-30 years. Oopsie.
I thought the same in the early 2000s. Then statistics showed me the error of my ways in 2005-2010. In terms of variance and heat extremes etc. it was a bit earlier noticeable tbh, which I didn't know. Looking back only a minority of political reports I got is talking about effects in 2020, most are like 2035-2050 or even later.