Whenever I see someone say "We have to do X to prevent Y because of the great potential costs of Y", I rarely see a discussion of the costs of X in comparison. Fixing the climate is going to be expensive. It's going to decrease the cost of living for everyone in similar ways that letting Miami flood will. I'm not advocating for ignoring it but this isn't just a one way street.

There is always this urge to DO SOMETHING. Pass a new law, bring in a new process, take a new pill, whatever. But those things also have costs, costs that are almost never analyzed and compared because they are "Free costs", e.g. we are protected in many ways from the costs because they are difficult to ascertain. If I don't take Lipitor and die of a heart attack, my doctor will say "see, there was a very visible cost." But if I take it for 30 years and find out that it causes memory loss and muscle problems and less efficient exercise adoption, none of that is measured (or possibly even possibly measured).

Fixing the climate is in a similar position. We need to do something because Miami will flood and people will default and the government may have to bail them out. But if we drastically reduce our carbon footprint, people will lose jobs, prices will be higher, standard of living will go down, etc. And none of that is discussed. Because it's hard and it might involve saying "It's best not to do something in this case." Which is hard for us to accept for some reason.