If you were in the Western Hemisphere, and you walked into a room full of strangers talking about Katrina, Harvey, Mitchell or Maria, you might know who they were talking about. If you were from Taiwan, you might introduce Fanapi; if you were several centuries old, you could talk about San Francisco.

When it comes to the climate crisis, more than any other challenge we face, the odds are truly stacked against us: powerful vested interests, an intransigent political class, the collapse of international efforts and a hostile and ineffectual media. And, it would seem, nature itself. But if we are to have any hope of shutting down the coal industry and articulating a viable alternative, we will need to look beyond the current logjams.