Because my buddy of 30 years and I have been watching and bequipping "environmental collapse" stories for two years, we have learned that there's a fairly predictable trajectory of the Truly Scary Stories:
a) scientists recognize a trend;
b) scientists begin studying and become concerned;
c) data begin to confirm those concerns, even though they don't want to believe it;
d) a scientific consensus grows, based on available evidence; a few stories in mainstream news begin to appear;
e) a growing panic in the scientific literature becomes apparent, couched in scientific reportage; a rise in mainstream news stories, because a few top scientists are willing to take the risk of public pronouncement of their panic -- they're quotable.
f) Finally, the Big Story makes it into news outlets worldwide, as if it was recently discovered.
g) sometime after that, the politicians become clued in.
The duration of that sequence varies. Climate chaos was the first, and is just now tickling the politicians.