A useful parable, even if not 100% historically accurate (as several responses already have pointed out.) While "we" in the collective will NOT be able to adapt, due to our (now suicidal) dominant ideology of endless economic growth on a finite planet ("More is always better") and our zero-sum money system (which guarantees that wealth and power will concentrate upward, leaving more and more people destitute), we nevertheless have options at the individual level.

The most important option is, starting today, for us to each, to the extent possible, grow gardens, grow community, and grow awareness. While such relocalization may not be enough to prevent total catastrophe (i.e. human extinction on an ecologically impoverished planet where only microbes can withstand the heat), it offers us the best chance we have for muddling through and--ideally--creating an adaptive Gaian culture to replace the toxic Glomart consumer culture that destroyed most of us...