In the summer of 2019–20, Australia burst into flames. More than five million hectares were ravaged by megafires so vast that they created their own weather. Major cities choked on smoke whose particles then circled the globe. As many as a billion animals perished, and thousands of properties were destroyed.

Emergencies test governments, organisations and individuals. Although Australia’s prompt, scienceled response to COVID-19 has not been perfect, it has saved tens of thousands of lives. But for decades, governments have ignored, ridiculed or understated the advice of scientists on the climate emergency.

Now, in the wake of the megafires, a time of reckoning has arrived. In The Climate Cure renowned climate scientist Tim Flannery takes aim at those responsible for the campaign of obfuscation and denial that has already cost so many Australian lives and held back action on climate change.

Flannery demands a new approach, based on the nation’s consultative response to COVID-19, that will lead to effective government policies. The Climate Cure is an action plan for our future. We face a fork in the road, and must decide now between catastrophe and survival.