An analogy I heard is of a slow motion train crash - our carriages somewhere in the middle of the train are so far seemingly unaffected, but already the first carriages are crushing, and people/animals/life is beginning to flee backwards on the train as best they can. For us in those middle carriages that will be the first first-hand indication of the catastrophe. Following this analogy, it is too late to stop the train crashing, though maybe we can slow it down and save as many of a carriages as we can.