The Paris Climate Change summit has come and gone. The results? Kind of like what Naomi Klein, author and activist, says: Your doctor tells you that you have dangerously high levels of cholesterol and are at acute risk of a fatal heart attack. You are told to stop eating meat and radically reduce your intake of alcohol. So what do you do? Instead of eating 5 hamburgers a day you eat 4. Instead of ten drinks a day you have eight. The world leaders who gathered in Paris were falling over themselves congratulating one another on what they saw as an historic achievement. But what was agreed upon was the equivalent of applying band aids where surgery is required. The future of the planet is at stake. We need solutions not placebos.

Australian scientist Tim Flannery is a major voice in chronicling the effects of climate change and proposing solutions. He has taught at the University of Adelaide and Harvard and was Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum. He is a Professional Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis.