To make things worse, the regional effect of a climate change is not intuitive. Interrupting this current might plunge the North Atlantic into a deep freeze. Sooner or later, yes. Because CO2 stays in the atmosphere for about a century, simply freezing the annual emissions won't stop the atmospheric concentrations rising. This is extraordinarily difficult.
Fossil fuels are the basis of modern urban civilization.
This highly concentrated form of energy which can be used for electricity, heating and transportation has enabled the evolution of large modern cities and a modern infrastructure to ship people and goods all over the planet. Fossil fuels are not only concentrated and convenient, they are remarkably cheap. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to cut our dependence at a time when the world's population and energy demands are both rising rapidly. Over the next century, world population will almost double to over 10 billion at least. And the standard of living of billions of people will rise as they seek many of the material benefits of the developed nations.