Can we step back from the Brink of the Abyss that lies beneath our Feet?

Probably not. When you think of the number of things which might have been averted with just a modicum of circumspection--like, say, World War I--and which weren't averted, the possibilities of our not succumbing to Global Warming seem slight.

Need I even have said so? But still--Suppose that there is a Galactic Authority, a Voting Democracy which has governed everything in the Milky Way Galaxy for the past  4,000,000,0000 years, which, when its constituent assembly gets to hear of conditions on Sol III (Earth), will order the Emperor to impose Climate Cooling on us and prevent Venice's being submerged. They will if they value art and music as much as constituent assemblies sometimes do--and most times don't. That leaves the August but somewhat Hypothetical Emperor (End Run around Natural Processes), at least a possible, if implausible, Court of Appeal.