RethinkX, a renowned think tank founded by Stanford University technology expert Tony Seba, predicted last year that disruptions in energy, transport and food production could eliminate 90 per cent of net climate pollution by 2035 by using technology already available, This could be our reality if we make the transformative choices now, shifting from an extraction-based, centralised system that exploits scarce resources and labour to a distributed, interconnected and generative system where we create what we need from what’s readily available.

After my own climate freak-out moment during the Black Summer fires, I decided to take a closer look at how individuals, families, communities, workplaces and industries are confronting the climate crisis and I found so many examples of people rising to meet the challenge that they filled a book. The marine scientist inventing a world-first plastic that’s made from seaweed. The fund managers guiding billions of dollars into credible, climate-positive investments. The retired scouts leader who is replanting Blue Mountains rainforest with his neighbours. The First Nations-owned brewery that operates on a philosophy of do less harm and do more good. Many of these stories were of progress and experimentation rather than perfection; others are complicated, just like every one of us. What it showed me was the sheer scale of what’s possible, right now.

We’re at a point in history where we have an unprecedented alignment of politics, technology and economics that has great potential to deliver a faster and fairer shift of our society. If we are going to do what the best available science tells us is required – that is, achieve net zero emissions by 2035, stop all new coal and gas projects, and phase out existing reliance on fossil fuels – it’s going to take all of us to expand our view of what’s possible, and take action.

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We need to rise to the challenge of holding an uncertain, dangerous future in one hand and the potential of a reconnected, regenerative world in the other. We need to harness our capacity for creativity, our passion for this country and our ability to support each other through tough times. If we do, perhaps our next report card will be we’re proud of.

Claire O’Rourke is a journalist, environmentalist and advocate, and the author of Together We Can, published this week by Allen & Unwin