Denial is back in vogue. As Australia leads climate talks, it’s beyond time we took the issue seriously

It is unlikely that many voters are flocking to Pauline Hanson for her scientific insights – but that is where they are lining up, regardless

• Want to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter here

Politics is disconnecting from long-held assumptions at historic speed and no one knows where the great unhinging will take us. On the climate crisis, denial is back in vogue – depending on what the algorithm feeds you.

One Nation’s surge in the polls suggests, for now at least, it is vying to be the most popular political party in the country. It does not accept the overwhelming evidence that the planet is warming and that extreme weather is getting worse. Instead, it argues the climate change department should be abolished because – in the strawiest of strawman arguments – it hasn’t changed the climate.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter