Wake up, Australia: deceit and post-truth politics will not save you from the flames | Quentin Grafton, Matthew Colloff, Virginia Marshall and John Williams

With the country facing water and climate emergencies, the last thing we need is more spin from leaders in thrall to the big end of townA mega fire from the Hunter region threatened our largest city while its residents sucked in polluted air and saw ash coming from the sky. An apocalyptic vision of what is in store in the now not-so-lucky country.Do not be fooled. In a post-truth world our leaders would have us believe that the lack of water is all about the drought and the bushfires are part of a typical Australian summer (ignoring the thousands of years of sound water and land management by Indigenous Australians). The truth is that governments have mismanaged our most precious resource, water, and failed to act on climate change. Continue reading...