The Long Goodbye

Coal, Coral and Australia's Climate Deadlock

The Great Barrier Reef is dying. Extreme weather is becoming all too familiar. Yet when it comes to action on climate change, division and paralysis rule the land.

In this vivid, urgent essay, Anna Krien explores the psychology and politics of a warming world. She visits the frontlines of Australia’s climate wars – the Reef, the Galilee and Bowen basins, South Australia. She investigates the Adani mine, with its toxic politics and controversial economics. Talking to power workers and scientists, lobbyists and activists, she considers where climate change is taking us, and where effective action is to be found.

Correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 66, The Long Goodbye:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna Krien’s first book, Into the Woods, won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award. Her writing has been published in the Monthly, the Age, Best Australian Essays, Best Australian Stories and the Big Issue.