The Titanic, on its maiden voyage in 1912, is something of a metaphor for the world community today - like those in charge of the ocean liner, we know there's trouble ahead, but we steam into the future, doing nothing or little to make the world, and the people on "spaceship Earth" climate-ready.

"Earth broke all-time heat record two days in a row, scientists say";

"No time to waste on another climate war, big business warns";

"States pump up ‘key technology’ to get households off gas";

"D.C. heat hits 104 degrees as people seek shelter and AC";

"My life at 50C: India’s new reality of extreme heat";

"Here’s Where Kamala Harris Stands on Climate";

"Yes, Australia’s environment is on a depressing path – but $7 billion a year would transform it";

"What a Harris campaign could mean for the fight against climate change";

"Small modular reactors have promise. But we found they’re unlikely to help Australia hit net zero by 2050";

"Monday was hottest recorded day on Earth: ‘Uncharted territory’".

Professor Joseph Camilleri (pictured) has long believed in the power of conversation. He acted on that belief about three years ago and set up the Melbourne-based group, "Conversation at the Crossroads".

Here he talks about that group, and the power of conversation and alerts listeners to an upcoming series of six, weekly sessions entitled "Ethics in Turbulent Times: How to Bring Society to Higher Ground".

International thinker and philosopher, Peter Singer, will be among the guests - people can attend in person or virtually.

Conversation at the Crossroads secretary, Susan Lengel, was a guest on Climate Conversations in May this year.

"Living Hot: Thriving and Surviving on a Heating Planet", co-authored by Clive Hamilton and George Wilkenfeld, tells the blunt truth about our current climate change predicament: it's time to get cracking on making Australia resilient to intensifying climate extremes.

If we prepare well, we can give ourselves a fighting chance to preserve some of the best of what we have, build stronger and fairer communities, find a path through the escalating pressures of a warming world – and even find new ways to flourish.

To get there, we must leave behind both the doomism and the wishful thinking currently holding us back.

In Living Hot, highly respected academic Clive Hamilton and policy consultant George Wilkenfeld shift th emphasis away from reducing carbon emissions and to making Australia is resilient, outlining a vision for an all-embracing and ongoing investment and social change program to protect ourselves from the ravages of a changing climate.

Living Hot is a sober assessment of the challenges we face and a farsighted road map for what we must do next to survive and even thrive on our heating planet.

The above words have been taken, largely, from a review of Hamilton's and Wilkenfeld's thought-provoking book.