Climate scientist and paleoclimatologist Dr Joelle Gergis has spent over a decade painstakingly piecing together Australia’s climate history, using historical records dating back to the First Fleet, natural records held in our trees, corals and ice and computer modelling. As she outlines in her book Sunburnt Country, published by Melbourne University Publishing, Australia’s climate has always been “spectacularly erratic”, but human activity has accelerated these rates of change. As the developed nation most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, she says we must act now to slow its worst impacts.

Episode recorded: 11 May 2018

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade

Producers: Dr Andi Horvath, Chris Hatzis and Silvi Vann-Wall

Audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis

Banner image: Brisbane floods, 1893/State Library of Queensland