Argument Catastrophic fires make it hard for media to stick to old narratives. Australia, the fossil-fueled paradise at the bottom of the world, is too easily misunderstood. The summer bushfire crisis has reinforced views of Australia as a country that for too long kicked back in sun-soaked, carefree denial of the greatest threat our species has faced. Yet, amid the intense grief felt by every Australian right now, the possibility of change flickers nearby. The world sees Australia as locked in a cycle of denial and calamity. As Robinson Meyer wrote for the Atlantic , “maybe Australia will find itself stuck in the climate spiral, clinging ever more tightly to coal as its towns and cities choke on the ash of a burning world.” There is not a lot of hope that Australia might be prodded into kicking its coal habit after its first terrifying trip to the emergency […]