People keep think that Climate Change was actually discovered and proven in the 1880s and not the late 1980s. There was some evidence and speculation that fossil fuels were causing damage to the climate, but it wasn't fully discovered and confirmed till around the late 80s by a mix of climatologists and oddly enough Exxon.

Even if we had immediately recognized that Climate Change was a danger we realistically would have only be able to do stuff like replace beef consumption and expand public transportation while electrifying new homes at the time. The type of big changes that weren't available in a practical version until atleast the late 00s. Solar and Wind did not become financially viable until the 2010s and electric cars are still outside the wealth of even the average American much less the average industrializing nation's citizen.