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Words & Ideas: On Climate Catastrophe

With Lauren Rickards and James Button

What is the scientific truth of the matter – how long have we got?  What must be done, and what are the chances that it will be?  Is Australia anywhere near where it should be? What might a ‘renewable’ Australia look like?


Lauren Rickards is a Professor of Climate Change Adaptation and Director of the La Trobe Climate Change Adaptation Lab at La Trobe University. Lauren was a Lead Author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Her research investigates the far-reaching implications of climate change for society, including the need for a simultaneous step change to reduce climate change impacts and and greenhouse gas emissions. 

James Button is a former feature writer and deputy editor of The Age, and former Europe correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. In 2009 and 2010 he worked in Australia’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, writing speeches for then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, an experience he describes in his book, Speechless: A Year in my Father’s Business. He has also written Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong, and has won three Walkley awards and a Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for feature writing. He is a freelance writer and editor.


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