“For the material economy, we need a Manhattan Project. We need a Marshall Plan for scaling globally, and we need an Apollo Program for carbon removal.“

“If we don’t engage with this and talk about the topic of geoengineering in these formative years then we are choosing to get left out of the conversation and that outcome is going to be much, much worse.”

“We need to move rapidly. What we do in the next 3-4 years, I believe, will determine the future of humanity.”

“We don’t know for sure what the response to solar geoengineering is. But we also don’t know what the response to CO2 is. And the issue is: which combined state of the world is less risky?“

“For my generation, the fight against Aids denialism was existential – we were literally fighting for our lives. The parallels to the current fight for climate justice are stark.“

“The primary ‘enemy’ or force we confront at this juncture, is an insidious way of thinking and practice that plagues our politics and economic policymaking—a dynamic I call the new climate denialism.“

“Changes in Australia occur when Aboriginal people politically agitate to create change.“

“Immediately ending carbon dioxide emissions will not be enough to solve the climate crisis; we also need to stabilise the Earth’s temperature.“

“Two-thirds of the global population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable states facing the challenge of climate change with sea-level rise likely to create a climate refugee population of 25 million people.“

“Military strategists must make a paradigm shift and consider climate change a core national security issue and existential security risk requiring immediate concerted attention.”

“Sadly, the system is not broken, it’s working exactly how industry and government want it to. It’s time that government turned around and started to adequately preserve and protect our cultural heritage places.“

“Traditional knowledges are about managing change. The speed of it is something that Indigenous local peoples are grappling with, but we haven’t said it’s beyond us. There’s not an Indigenous mob on the face of this earth that hasn’t gone through massive climate change.“

“Global demand for low-carbon goods and services is currently outstripping supply. Australian manufacturers can rapidly transition to zero emissions energy and capitalise on this enormous opportunity to secure high-quality jobs and strong regional communities.“

“After nuclear war, human-induced global warming is the greatest threat to human life on the planet. Today’s 7.5 billion human beings are already the most predatory species that ever existed, yet the global population has yet to peak and may reach 10 billion people, with dire implications absent a fundamental change in human behaviour.“

“Getting into emergency mode, rapidly, is the central challenge for the climate movement and for all those who understand what we are facing.”

“After 15 years reporting climate, I understand the power and complexity of the Earth system. But I’m still mystified by humans. Our survival turns on knowing ourselves, overcoming our limitations.“

“The tables are reversed. To address the climate emergency extractive settler Australia will need to politely invite Indigenous peoples to deploy their extensive native title rights and interests to assist.”

“Depending on which emissions scenario we track, the planet could warm by more than 4 degrees by the end of this century. It’s not hard to work out what this means for extreme heat. For Australia, summers like our last will be more common than they are rare.“

“Emissions reductions are necessary but not sufficient. We also need negative emissions, but it is not a trade off of one or the other. We must avoid the moral hazard that we could keep polluting because we might be able to clean it up.“

“I think it’s the defining threat of this century. I can’t think of any other threat that is transforming the planet on this level or scale. It’s such a ubiquitous threat”

“Climate disruption is an existential risk. This is not like other risks. If we crash the climate system and destroy civilization, then we cannot learn from our mistakes. You only do that once.”

“For the health sector, responding to climate change is not an optional extra, it is core business.“

“For the health sector, responding to climate change is not an optional extra, it is core business.“