“I often wonder: where did I go wrong?” [Australian researcher] Graeme Pearman says. “Why didn’t people respond? Is that my responsibility?”

When Guardian Australia meets him at his home on the outskirts of Melbourne, the veteran climate scientist is frustrated.

“If you go through the whole process and the rigour of conducting science, [you think] at the end of the day surely people will understand what you’re saying – they will incorporate those risks into what they do,” he says.

“Well, it doesn’t work that way.

“The reality is that for a period of nearly two decades, Australia went backwards [on climate action]. From a personal perspective, yes, it’s frustrating.”

Precursor: If I was feeling hopeless about the climate, what of the scientists? So I asked them