> We do have this whole global climate crisis going on. Maybe people could try being afraid of that

It's too conceptually big for some people to put into the 'fear bank' to be relied upon.

For the threat to be near-universally relied upon, it needs to:

(a) have a physical presence, and

(b) be within 2 orders of magnitude of size to trigger physical alertness (tick -> herd of elephants), but also

(c) not be (immediately dangerous/lethal that the only solution is to never meet it)