Sunburnt Country (2018) by climate scientist Joelle Gergis tells of "the history and future of climate change in Australia", covering colonial weather records, paleoclimatological records (from tree rings, coral core bands, ice core samples and other natural climate impacts), Aboriginal stories, known weather systems, and other such data to build a complete picture of climate change in Australia.

It asserts that humanity already has the technology and scientific know-how to solve the climate crisis. All that's standing in our way is the political will to do so.

This book was among my "5 books of stupid" about climate change. Although it assumes the reader is already familiar with certain concepts, terminology and events, I still got a fair whack of background into how climate change relates specifically to those of us living in Australia.

Thinkystuff

Chapter 22, "Piecing Together the Climate Jigsaw", surprised me with its revelation that global warming may have started as early as the onset of the Industrial Revolution due to the rapid rise in the use of fossil fuels:

Since 1850, global temperatures have risen by approximately 0.87°C relative to 1961–90 levels, or around 1°C above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900 average). During [the Industrial Period, aka. the Anthropocene] there has been an exponential increase in the size of the human population, and consequentially vast modifications to the Earth's surface to support human activities.

In Chapter 41, "We Are All In This Together", Gergis warns:

The science is crystal clear: we are already committed to dangerous levels of climate change, and Australia is the most vulnerable nation in the developed world.

Citing a 2017 study:

[A]ny further increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will compound dangerous climate change already baked into the system from past emissions, and they will keep rising until emissions are actively removed. The urgent challenge is to stop releasing new greenhouse gases and begin to rapidly pull historical emossions out of our atmosphere and oceans.

From Chapter 41, "We Are All In This Together":

British psychologist Sally Weintrobe has [described] the 'culture of uncare' that has accelerated during the rapid period of globalisation we've experienced since the late 1970s, [arguing] that our culture of mindless consumerism and entitlement is driven by a powerful underlying notion that the Earth is here 'solely to provide endlessly for us and to absorb all our waste'... We have seen a shift towards a greater disregard for science, and have become a more materialistic and narcissistic throwaway society that balues fulfilling an individual's immediate desires over safeguarding our collective future.

How I'm feeling

It's been five years since Sunburnt Country came out, and even though the Carmichael coal mine is unfortunately in operation, Australia met its 2020 renewable energy target, the 2022 collapse of REDcycle soft plastics recycling proved how the public cares about our plastics problem, and people are increasingly questioning our pervasive culture of consumption and materialism. The climate change prognosis may be depressing af, but I feel there's still so much we can do.