Australian PM campaigns to sell unpopular carbon tax | Environment | guardian.co.uk

"People will have the opportunity to judge for themselves," she told Australian television. "And what people are going to see is tax cuts."

How would you lead us out of our climate predicament? | Andrew Simms | Environment | guardian.co.uk

If you were in a burning office block and the management decided it was too much effort to evacuate, that everyone was too busy and would only be annoyed if interrupted, what would you do?

I doubt you'd sit still. You'd start thinking of every possible way out. I suspect a surprising number would throw themselves unselfishly into the effort to find and save others.

Fanciful? Not really. The only difference is scale. The building is so big – the earth and its atmosphere – and the fire in rooms that for some, temporarily lucky ones, are too distant for the threat to seem real....

In three months' time, the 100 months climate countdown that this series marks will reach the halfway point. From 1 October, based on a conservative assessment, there will be 50 months left before the climate dice become loaded in favour of crossing a critical threshold in temperature rise.