Really honoured to have been asked by IASNR to keynote this year’s ISSRM meeting after it was moved online. While I would love to be sitting around with my colleagues in Cairns, Australia, the originally planned host city, I’m so far enjoying the online presentations and live Q&A engagement. My keynote synthesizes my work on climax thinking, drawing insights from the work of MES students Kristina Keilty, Ellen Chappell and Krysta Sutton in contexts as diverse as potential dam removal, wind energy, and coastal adaptation. I am looking forward to the live Q&A for the keynote session on Wednesday morning, and the rest of the conference as it rolls out over the next two weeks.