What was the Australian climate like before official weather records began? What do tree-rings, ice cores and deep-sea coral measurements tell us? What do Indigenous seasonal calendars reveal? And what do settler diary entries about rainfall, droughts, bushfires and snowfalls show about the continent's natural climate cycles? Sunburnt Country pieces together Australia's climate history for the first time. It shows a continent always vulnerable to climate extremes and variability. It gives an unparalleled perspective on how human activities have altered patterns that have been in existence for millions of years, and what climate change in our own backyard looks like. Sunburnt Country highlights the impact of the warming planet on Australian lifestyles and ecosystems but also the power individuals have to shape future life on Earth.

Spring is nature's season of rebirth and rejuvenation. Earth's northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, winter yields to intensifying light and warmth, and a wild, elemental beauty transforms the Highland landscape and a repertoire of islands from Colonsay to Lindisfarne. Jim Crumley chronicles the wonder, tumult and spectacle of that transformation, but he shows too that it is no Wordsworthian idyll that unfolds. Climate chaos brings unwanted drama to the lives of badger and fox, seal and seabird and raptor, pine marten and sand martin. Jim lays bare the impact of global warming and urges us all towards a more daring conservation vision that embraces everything from the mountain treeline to a second spring for the wolf.