In what was one of the most memorable scenes from the 1975 film Jaws, the movie’s hero, Brody, comes face-to-face for the first time with the terrifying Great White. Stunned by its size, he backs slowly into the bridge and can only mutter to the captain, Quint, “you’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

In a recent interview on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper and Bill Gates had the following exchange about the scale of the climate problem:

Anderson Cooper: You believe this is the toughest challenge humanity has ever faced?

Bill Gates: Absolutely. The amount of change, new ideas.  It’s way greater than the pandemic. And it needs a level of cooperation that would be unprecedented.

Anderson Cooper: That doesn’t sound feasible–

Bill Gates: No, it’s not easy. But hey, we have 30 years–

Anderson Cooper: It sounds impossible.

…

Bill Gates: It can seem overwhelming.

Anderson Cooper: But you are optimistic?

Bill Gates:  Yeah.  There are days when it looks very hard.  If people think it’s easy, they’re wrong. If people think it’s impossible they’re wrong.

Anderson Cooper: It’s possible.

Bill Gates: It’s possible. But it’ll be the most amazing thing mankind has ever done.

Anderson Cooper: That’s what it has to be?

Bill Gates: Yeah. It’s an all-out effort, you know, like a world war, but it’s us against greenhouse gases.

Reflect on that for a moment: “It’s possible. But it’ll be the most amazing thing mankind has ever done.”

This interview aired on 60 Minutes, on CBS. Society at large is coming face-to-face with the killer shark, and it’s beginning to realize the scale of the problem. Best case scenario, after much effort and loss we’ll find ourselves as Brody and Hooper did — exhausted, weathered, but left with some hope — swimming between two barrels toward shore.