"last-ditch attempt to prevent cultural and even species extinction"

This culture is done for. The Sumerian model of transactional society/civilization seems to be going through cycles that last roughly 2K years. It starts with dark ages; culminates within a millennium or so when the culture reaches its pinnacle; and then abruptly disintegrates within few centuries due to pandemics, environmental disasters, wars, famines, societal incoherence, etc.

Thus, there was Late Bronze Age collapse, collapse of Greco-Roman antiquity, and currently observed collapse of what I would call Abrahamic colonialism, which is in making for few centuries already. I would also say that this particular collapse will be the last one as far as the aforementioned Sumerian model of civilization is concerned. Obviously, as all attempts to keep it in place will inevitably lead to our extinction, and if we change the course, that model is done for anyway.