Slick takes a comprehensive look at the origins of the Australian petroleum industry, investigating what these companies knew about climate change and how they learned to wield influence and insert themselves into all facets of public life. Royce Kurmelovs reveals how the US petroleum industry was warned about its environmental impacts back in the 1950s and yet went on to build the Australian oil industry, which in turn tried to drill the Great Barrier Reef, sought to strongarm governments, and joined a global effort to bury the science of climate change and delay action despite knowing the harms it would cause.

Slick also tells the stories of fire and flood survivors, as well as of the activists engaged in a high-stakes fight for the future of Australia and of the efforts being made to save ourselves from catastrophe.

This superb, in-depth work of journalism provides an on-the-ground examination of how the fossil fuel industry captured Australia, and outlines what’s at stake for the survival of the planet and our democracy. A riveting expose of the global oil industry’s multi-decade conspiracy to muddy the waters around the science of climate change and use the Australian government to undermine worldwide efforts to address environmental devastation.

This is a free webinar but registration is essential.

The Author

Royce Kurmelovs

Royce Kurmelovs is a journalist and author who has been published by Rolling Stone Australia, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, VICE and other newspapers and magazines.

His bestselling first book, The Death of Holden, was published in 2016 and his critically acclaimed fourth book, Just Money: Misadventures in the Australian Debt Trap, in 2020.