The Sustainable Hour on 94.7 The Pulse on 20 April 2016 is about ethics and honesty in relation to how we are changing the planet’s climate and eco-systems. It is the hour where we, inspired by the Climate Emergency Declaration Petition, take a look at what it will take before we act urgently and boldly on climate change as we would if we were attacked by some military force.
Guest in the studio is Sam Marshall, Head of Business Partnerships at Ethical Switch.
We play a clip by US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in a Democratic debate with Hillary Clinton, and we ask Ian Dunlop to comment on this over the phone. Ian Dunlop has, among many other things, chaired the Australian Coal Association, and he has been an executive at Shell.
We also talk with the Danish professor Claus Felby from Copenhagen University about a new discovery in the laboratory which reportedly is a sensational biotech breakthrough.
Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 118:
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On this page:
► Editorial: This is Geelong calling
► Bernie Sanders: Compare global warming to warfare
► Ian Dunlop: What we need is a Government of National Unity
► Claus Felby: Promising biotech discovery
► President Obama: Speaks in Alaska
► Baba Brinkman: Climate rap song
► Report: Homegrown Power Plan
► Unifying climate safety leadership: Not ‘how?’, but ‘who?’
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“I stand at the head of a government representing all parties in the state. All creeds, all classes, every recognisable section of opinion … we are supported by a free parliament and a free press, but there is one bond which unites us all, and sustains us in the public regard, namely – as is increasingly becoming known – that we are prepared to proceed to all extremity, to endure them and to enforce them. That is our bond of union.”
Winston Churchill, 14 July 1940
EDITORIAL:
“This is Geelong calling…”
By Mik Aidt
When I sometimes open The Sustainable Hour with this sentence, “This is Geelong calling…”, I say it with a specific reference to the Second World War. Things my grandfather told me about. The underground freedom fighter movement in those countries in Europe, which had become occupied by Germany, was encouraged by and to some extent coordinated and supported with weapons from England.
From London the airwaves of BBC World Service would reach places like Denmark, where my grandfather lived and had tuned his radio in, secretly, late at night. They’d always start their broadcasts with saying ‘This is London calling!’, he told me.
And really, we are calling out from Geelong today, because we are onto something that reaches further. Something which we feel is important not just for our own little provincial city, but for Australia, and even other countries. But in particular something which feeds very directly into the Australian election, the federal election, which was just kicked off earlier this week.
Today in The Sustainable Hour we talk about big money, political failure and lack of action in response to the escalating climate emergency. We talk about the choices we make – or fail to make – as human beings in the 21st century. With President Obama’s words, “We are the first generation feeling the impact of climate change, and we are the last generation who can do something about it.”
The problem with the Paris Agreement on climate change, which has now been ratified by 150 nations, is that it already has become a governmental sleeping pill. Scientists tell us it’s goals are insufficient, and that the world is currently on track to 2.7°C global warming. But the Paris Agreement gives the world’s politicians and voters the false impression that in itself the Agreement is going to prevent catastrophic global warming. The deal is done, now we can go back to continue our business.
In Australia’s case, it is pathetic to see the government pledging to cut just a quarter of the country’s annual air pollution over the next decade. Small steps in the right direction, sure – but really what the temperature graphs and the climate-scientific measurements and models are telling us is that such small steps will no longer suffice. We need to scale up.
American author Bill McKibben said this week that Australia’s plans to dig up and export massive untapped coal deposits, like the Galilee Basin in Queensland, mean this small nation of 24 million people is a key battleground in the “fossil fuel resistance movement”.
Like in the days of the Second World War, the climate emergency has become a question about standing up to fight for what is right – and for our children’s future. Because our ethics and moral tells us to. Because we are honest people, and as parents, we want to pass our ethics and the qualities of being honest on to them.
Time has come where we have to raise the bar and stand up to tackle the serious, global challenges humanity is confronted with.
Ethical Switch
To help us with the ethical choices, we have invited a special guest in the Sustainable Studio today, Sam Marshall, who has given the topic of ethics in relation to carbon pollution and climate change some extra thought, since he started working for an enterprise called Ethical Switch two years ago.
Underscored by Anna Lappe‘s quote “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want”, Ethical Switch is an innovative, Melbourne-based grass-roots group that encourages us to direct our money to businesses that share our ethical goals and beliefs in order to create change in the world. Their aim is to work with ethical businesses to create affordable, positive deals for the services we use on a daily basis in order to generate a change towards a more ethical world.
As part of the “switch” to a new service provider or supplier, Ethical Switch partner with businesses to donate to chosen charities. The more people that sign on for the switch, the more money a charity will receive.
Currently, Ethical Switch presents a comparison of all electricity providers within an area in terms of carbon emissions, renewable energy investment and customer satisfaction. By choosing one of their high rated providers, customers are directly supporting investment in renewable energy in Australia.
Friends of the Earth recently partnered with Ethical Switch for a fundraising campaign to focus on the impact that a household’s energy choices can make on the environment. Their partnership with Ethical Switch promotes investment in renewable energy and it also directly benefits conservation.
So, this a way we can send a message to our government and to big energy – and for each person that switches to one of the Ethical Switch recommended companies, Ethical Switch will donate $50 to Friends of the Earth.
» Get behind renewable power and get switching! Start the switch at www.ethicalswitch.com/friendsoftheearth
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LISTENER SERVICE:
Mentioned in this Sustainable Hour
Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
Bernie Sanders
» Right-click to download the audio file (MP3)
Last Thursday, US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke out about the need for a WW2-scale climate mobilisation to resounding cheers during the New York debate with Hillary Clinton, live on CNN.
As we are entering the Australian election, could Sanders be an inspiration to Australian politicians?
He has moved the bar, and the vocal response among his fans and followers is remarkable.
In the debate, Sanders compared global warming to warfare. The United States should respond to melting icecaps like it would respond to a foreign invasion, he said:
“If we approach this, Errol, as if we were literally at a war — you know, in 1941, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we moved within three years, within three more years to rebuild our economy to defeat Nazism and Japanese imperialism. That is exactly the kind of approach we need right now. Lead the world.”
“Here is a real difference. This is a difference between understanding that we have a crisis of historical consequence here, and incrementalism and those little steps are not enough. Not right now. Not on climate change.”
“Look, here’s where we are. Let me reiterate. We have a global crisis. Pope Francis reminded us that we are on a suicide course. Our legislation understands, Errol, that there will be economic dislocation. It is absolutely true. There will be some people who lose their job. And we build into our legislation an enormous amount of money to protect those workers. It is not their fault… It is not their fault that fossil fuels are destroying our climate.
But we have got to stand up and say right now, as we would if we were attacked by some military force, we have got to move urgency — urgently and boldly.”
ERROL: ….With less than 6 percent of all U.S. energy coming from solar, wind and geothermal, and 20 percent of U.S. power coming from nuclear, if you phase out all of that, how do you make up that difference?
SANDERS: Well, you don’t phase it all out tomorrow. And you certainly don’t phase nuclear out tomorrow. But this is what you do do. [APPLAUSE]. What you do do is say that we are going to have a massive program — and I had introduced — introduced legislation for 10 million solar rooftops. We can put probably millions of people to work retrofitting and weatherizing buildings all over this country. [CHEERING]. Saving — rebuilding our rail system. [APPLAUSE]. Our mass transit system. [APPLAUSE]. If we approach this, Errol, as if we were literally at a war — you know, in 1941, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we moved within three years, within three more years to rebuild our economy to defeat Nazism and Japanese imperialism. That is exactly the kind of approach we need right now. [APPLAUSE]. Lead the world”
BLITZER: Thank you, Senator.
The word “climate” was mentioned 19 times during the debate. When CNN published what they found to have been “the most memorable lines” from the debate, Sanders’ climate change and renewables statements were not even mentioned.
The Altantic Magazine took notice, though, and called it “The Democrats’ Most Substantive Climate Debate Yet”.
www.theatlantic.com
“Sanders wants to think bigger when it comes to climate politics. “This is a difference between understanding that we have a crisis of historical consequence here,” he said. “Incrementalism and those little steps are not enough. Not right now. Not on climate change.”
Grist Magazine
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“Bernie has correctly come out and identified this as the number-one security threat to the United States. And he invoked FDR [president Franklin D. Roosevelt], who overhauled the entire American economy to defeat fascism in Europe, and that is the correct mindset. We need that kind of FDR-like mobilization on renewable and on climate.
The story goes like this: FDR identified that we were going to have to fight. And he went to the auto industry and he said, “We’re going to need you to start building planes, and tanks, and guns, because we have to defeat this enemy in Europe. And the auto industry looked at him and said, “Alright, Mr. President. We’ll try. But it’s going to be hard to do that while we’re making all these cars for Americans.” And FDR said, “You don’t understand. We’re gonna ban the sale of private automobiles in this country.” And they were like, “Oh.” And at that moment, Americans realized, “OK. The only way we get through this is if we win this war.”
And that’s the same crisis now with climate change. We have to win the war against emissions. The only way we do that is by a radical and very fast overhaul. Is it possible? Of course it’s possible. The only thing we can do at this late stage, at this stage of emergency, is a complete overhaul.”
Josh Fox» Read more: www.rollingstone.com
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Ian Dunlop
» Right-click to download the audio file (MP3)
Radio interview with Ian Dunlop about his response to Bernie Sanders’ World War II-mobilisation climate statements.
“We’re being taken for fools by the political system. Politics is broken in this country. Money has stopped the real issues being addressed. This is not a left or right wing political issue. This is an existential issue. If we don’t get it right, we all have a very big problem. What we need is a Government of National Unity.”
Ian Dunlop – in The Sustainable Hour
“Climate change is a genuinely existential issue which unless rapidly addressed, will result in a substantial reduction in global population with immeasurable suffering, the beginnings of which can already be seen in the climate-driven refugee crisis engulfing Europe. Australia, as the driest continent on Earth is not immune. We have left it too late to solve this dilemma with a graduated response; emergency action, akin to placing the economy on a war-footing, is essential if we wish to avoid the worst outcomes.”
Ian Dunlop
» Read the article by Ian Dunlop in Sydney Morning Herald on 25 May 2016:
‘Climate change: waiting for catastrophe means we will be too late to act’
About Ian Dunlop
Ian Dunlop, 72, is a former senior Executive of Royal Dutch Shell and has worked in oil, gas and coal exploration and production, and in scenario and long-term energy planning. He chaired the Australian Coal Association 1987-88, and the Australian Greenhouse Office Experts Group on Emissions Trading 1998-2000, which developed the first emissions trading system design for Australia.
Ian Dunlop has wide experience in energy resources, infrastructure, and international business. He has worked at senior level in oil, gas and coal exploration and production, in scenario and long-term energy planning, competition reform and privatisation.
From the late-1970s, he established a coal industry involvement for Shell in Australia, where he was involved in extensive industry reform, improving the safety performance of coal mining, and initiating research into the implications of climate change for coal. During this time he was involved in the marketing of coal to a wide range of customers in Asia and Europe. He chaired the Australian Coal Association from 1987-88.
He is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Energy Institute (UK), and a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME (USA).
He is Chairman of Safe Climate Australia, a Director of Australia 21, Deputy Convenor of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil, a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development, a member of The Club of Rome and of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Climate Change Taskforce.
He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of NSW, and an Associate of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne, writing extensively on governance and sustainability issues.
» Home page: www.iandunlop.net
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“The main environmental groups are not honest about the problem. The NGOs are as much a part of the failure as anybody else.”
Ian Dunlop
“Environmentalism” has failed
“Our global crisis — not merely environmental but moral and spiritual — is fundamental: it strikes to the root of who we are. It’s a radical situation, requiring a radical response. Not merely radical in the sense of ideology, but a kind of radical necessity. It requires us to find out who we really are—and, nonviolently, in the steps of Gandhi and King and many others, to act. In some cases, to lay everything—everything—on the line. And it requires us to be honest, with one another and with ourselves, about the situation we face.”
“Fuck Earth Day. No, really. Fuck Earth Day. Not the first one, forty-four years ago, the one of sepia-hued nostalgia, but everything the day has since come to be: the darkest, cruelest, most brutally self-satirizing spectacle of the year.Fuck it. Let it end here. End the dishonesty, the deception. Stop lying to yourselves, and to your children.
Stop pretending that the crisis can be “solved,” that the planet can be “saved,” that business more-or-less as usual—what progressives and environmentalists have been doing for forty-odd years and more—is morally or intellectually tenable. Let go of the pretense that “environmentalism” as we know it—virtuous green consumerism, affluent low-carbon localism, head-in-the-sand conservationism, feel-good greenwashed capitalism—comes anywhere near the radical response our situation requires.
So, yeah, I’ve had it with Earth Day — and the culture of progressive green denial it represents.”
» Wen Stephenson in The Nation on 22 April 2016:
“Environmentalism” has failed. The planet now needs a movement far more radical.
The problem with the main environmental organisations is that they feed into a political system which is flawed. Telling our political leaders that “we want change” will no longer suffice.
We must ban fossil fuel "donations" to political parties. No ifs and no buts. My letter in @theage #Auspol #Springst pic.twitter.com/GotOpMhrdf
— Andrew Laird (@ReclaimAnglesea) April 1, 2016
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‘President Obama speaks in Alaska’
Published on youtube.com on 31 August 2015
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Speaking of leadership…
“Leaders of the visionary capability of a Mandela or a Gorbachev are actually in short supply. There’s an almost empty stage for international political leaders to step onto and really show the way forward to the rest of us.
But what will generate people to move onto that stage, I have no doubt, is public opinion. And so it is critically important that the NGOs and the public voice is heard through the media. I think that one could hardly overemphasise the importance of this.”
Sir David King, Special Representative to the Foreign Secretary in the UK on climate change
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Unifying climate safety leadership: not ‘how?’, but ‘who?’
Who will be our Australian ‘Climate Churchill’? Who will be our national climate safety spokesperson? Are there others out there showing the way?
This world has seen great leaders who were able to convince large groups of people to enter a path of resistance, transition or even revolution. Take leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill. Visionaries who created popular movements based not on economy or politics, but on moral issues, justice, common sense. Each of them were able to gather enough support for their cause to create huge changes in society and history.
The Catholics have Pope Francis, who has already done and said so many excellent things in this space, and most likely will continue to do so. But the fact that is leader of a religious group disqualifies him. He represents one group, not all groups.
What about UN’s Climate Chief Christiana Figueres? She gave a remarkable speech in St Paul’s Cathedral in London back in May 2014.
America has Al Gore, who has been one of the leading, global spokespersons for awareness in this field for many years, author and divestment-activist Bill McKibben, retired NASA-scientist James E. Hansen, biologist, author and environmental activist Sandra Steingraber – or the Canadian scientist David Suzuki? Naomi Klein?
The problem they all have in common is that neither of these climate action advocates have any political power. Barack Obama does, but he will soon step down as president. And not even Obama has been able to achive consensus and full support from all corners of society for his call for mobilisation.
Great Britain has Prince Charles. He has often called on global business leaders to take tough choices over climate change even if it made them unpopular.
Who do we have in Australia? Do you know of someone we haven’t yet thought of?
Who would you suggest in an Australian context?
If you have an idea of who to nominate then post it below, in the comments field!
» See also this page: Climate safety heroes – about solution-builders, innovators, doers and first-movers in The Great Transition.
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Speaking of a fossil fuel resistance movement
“There is a fight underway, and it is the great fight of our time. The arc of the physical universe is short, and it bends towards heat. If we don’t win soon, we do not win. So that’s why the urgency is so deep. That’s why people are doing things that no-one should have to do.”
Bill McKibben
Australia: A Crucial Battleground
As McKibben points out, one of the fossil fuel industry’s key strongholds is Australia. We are now the world’s largest exporter of coal, which Mckibbon says is “Australia’s sin”. He argues plans to dig up and export massive untapped deposits, like the Galilee Basin in Queensland, mean this small nation of 23 million is a key battleground in the “fossil fuel resistance movement”.
» New Matilda – 24 April 2016:
Sketching The Fight: Bill McKibben On How To Save The Planet
“In the “dark shadow of what’s happened in the Great Barrier Reef,” prominent climate activist Bill McKibben has urged Australians to join in plans to shut down the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle this May.”
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Claus Felby
Danish researchers have discovered a totally new way to use the energy from the sun to create biofuels – by the help of clorophyl.
Sunlight can be used to produce fuels and chemicals that we need – in a natural process described as “reverse photosynthesis” where the solar rays break down plant material to produce biofuels. The discovery has the potential to revolutionise industrial production of fuels, by making it cheaper to produce bio fuels than the cost of oil, diesel and petrol.
“This is a game changer,” says Professor Claus Felby from University of Copenhagen, who leads the research. The research results were published in Nature, and their report was downloaded 3,000 times within the first 24 hours after it was made accessible online.
Bio ethanol in fuel
In the US, petrol for cars already today is mixed with 10 per cent bio ethanol. Heading for 15 per cent soon.
In Brazil, they want to increase the share to 27.5 per cent.
» Read more on www.science.ku.dk
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MUSIC
‘What’s Beef? (Climate Change Version)’
Published on youtube.com on 12 August 2015
Baba Brinkman calls himself a ‘peer-reviewed rapper’ and is launching an album with rap music about climate change, ‘Rap Guide to Climate Chaos’, which is also the title of his hip-hop theatre production that premiered to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015, and opened off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse in February 2016.
» Read more about Baba Brinkman or download the track on www.music.bababrinkman.com
» www.facebook.com/bababrinkman
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NEW REPORTS
Homegrown Power Plan
GetUp and Solar Citizens have launched a report which shows that 100% renewables by 2030 is not only doable, it will save Australia money.
Australia is at a crossroads. Coal and gas are polluting our air, poisoning our water and making our planet way too hot to handle. Yet the fossil fuel lobby still holds our parliament in its grubby hands. Our politicians keep wasting billions of dollars on fossil fuel subsidies every year.
They keep failing to notice that falling renewable prices are the final nail in the coffin for fossil fuels. And they still have no plan to deliver the renewable electricity future Australians want. So we made one for them.
The Homegrown Power Plan, a joint project between GetUp! and Solar Citizens, shows how we can repower the country with 100% renewable power by 2030.
How? By rebooting our failing electricity system, removing the roadblocks holding us back, and investing in the renewables boom. A move to 100% renewable power is practical, achievable, economically sound and overwhelmingly popular. Governments are being left behind by citizens voting with their feet (or their rooftops). It’s time they caught up.
» Can you share the Homegrown Power Plan with your local MP?
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Renewable Energy Superpower
Beyond Zero Emissions have launched their latest report, ‘Renewable Energy Superpower’. The research – following on from the ‘Fossil Economy’ and ‘Carbon Crisis’ reports – identifies in detail the now very apparent compelling opportunities associated with being prepared for the global transition to clean energy.
A podcast was broadcasted on 11 April 2016 where you can listen to the speakers at the report’s launch event in Sydney. The speakers there were:
• Gerard Drew – Research Director, Beyond Zero Emissions
• Tim Buckley – Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, www.ieefa.org
• Emma Herd – CEO of Investor Group on Climate Change, www.igcc.org.au
• Dr Mehreen Faruqi – Greens NSW MP
• The Hon Mark Butler MP – Shadow Minister for the Environment
» Read more about the report
» Read more about the launch events
» Listen to the podcast
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Climatarian Challenge App
The Climatarian Challenge App was successfully funded! No Meat No Heat managed to raise $12,241 dollars before the deadline at 11am last Thursday, on 14 April.
» www.pozible.com/project/204652
ADDITIONAL UPDATES:
In other news
Excerpts from our stack of notes and news from the week which we also had wanted to mention in this Sustainable Hour
Highlights from the week
The Guardian highlights some of the bad news:
• Record temperatures globally
• New lows for sea ice
• Mass bleaching of coral reefs
• Unheard-of leaps in CO2 levels in our atmosphere
• How governments are still failing to grasp the urgency of deeply cutting emissions
On the good news side, highlights were:
• Massive justice for the Latrobe Valley, including huge new rehabilitation costs for mine owners following years of incredible work from the local community and campaigner
• Australia’s largest super fund creates a fossil fuel free fund for its members
• Tony Windsor says he’s willing to go to jail to stop the Shenhua coal mine
• Huge week of action to get the climate blockers and dirty money out of our politics launches
• Students prepare to take unprecedented action to get their universities to kick the fossil fuel habit
• Awesome actions at BP headquarters to protest their plans to drill the Bight
• Attendee numbers soar for Break Free from fossil fuels at the world’s largest coal port in less than four weeks
• The dirty 30 climate blockers get another great walloping in the media
• Polling shows Australians hate fossil fuel subsidies
• AEI announces they’re finally divesting from gas
• Yale divests
• Mt Alexander divests
» #goodnews
» #changeishappening
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» Michael Martinez, CEO Diversitat, in Geelong Advertiser on 21 April 2016:
Mining bonds boost to cleaner future
TED-talks about climate
» TED:
Will we do whatever it takes to fight climate change?
Michael Metcalfe: A provocative way to finance the fight against climate change
Back in 2008, following the global financial crisis, governments across the world adopted a “whatever it takes” commitment to monetary recovery, issuing $250 billion worth of international currency to stem the collapse of the economy. In this delightfully wonky talk, financial expert Michael Metcalfe suggests we can use that very same unconventional monetary tool to fund a global commitment to a green future.
» TED:
Christiana Figueres: The inside story of the Paris climate agreement
» TED Playlist (18 talks):
How do you solve a problem like the climate crisis?
We all know about the climate crisis. We all want to stay informed — but the information can be overwhelming. Watch these talks to hear what’s at stake and find out what’s being done.
» TED:
Paul Gilding: The Earth is full
Have we used up all our resources? Have we filled up all the livable space on Earth? Paul Gilding suggests we have, and the possibility of devastating consequences, in a talk that’s equal parts terrifying and, oddly, hopeful.
Paul Gilding is an independent writer, activist and adviser on a sustainable economy.
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“For decades, Australia has allowed dirty coal to flood out of Newcastle, damaging surrounding communities and exporting pollution to the rest of the world. If our leaders are serious about making good on their commitments in Paris, then it starts with Newcastle.”
Break Free 2016
Campaign to keep fossil fuels in the ground
In just a few weeks, thousands of people across six continents and 13 countries are coming together to ‘break free’ from fossil fuels, creating actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Australia’s Break Free action is organised by 350. On the weekend of 7-8 May, hundreds of hundreds of Australians from all walks of life will stand together and shut down the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle to stop the export of pollution.
The hope is that actions will speak louder than politician’s words, saying: it’s time for real action to keep fossil fuels in the ground
» www.australia.breakfree2016.org
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Poll: Most Australians want more climate action this election
An Essential opinion poll published on 15 March shows that 57 per cent of voting aged people think Australia is not doing enough to address climate change. This is up 4 per cent since the last survey in August 2015. Just 21 per cent (down 3 per cent) think Australia is doing enough. Younger people aged 18-34 (66 per cent) and university educated (64 per cent) think Australia is not doing enough.
Even 38 per cent of Liberal voters think Australia is not doing enough, 2 per cent more than those saying that enough is being done.
The essential poll survey on March 15 also showed that 63 per cent of voting age people believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity. This is up 7 per cent since the previous survey in November 2015. There is a long term increase in this concern as shown in my graph of the data below. Those aged under 35 are likely agree with human caused climate change by a 70 per cent to 18 per cent split. Voters aged 55 and older are much more evenly divided on the issue with a 48 per cent to 46 per cent split.
» See the poll survey on www.essentialvision.com.au
» Read more on www.climateactionmoreland.org/
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Whitehouse report on the impacts of climate change on human health
The effects of global climate change on mental health and well-being are integral parts of the overall climate-related human health impacts. Mental health consequences of climate change range from minimal stress and distress symptoms to clinical disorders, such asanxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidality. Other consequences include effects on the everyday life, perceptions, and experiences of individuals and communities attempting to understand and respond appropriately to climate change and its implications.
The mental health and well-being consequences of climate change related impacts rarely occur in isolation, but often interact with other social and environmental stressors. The interactive and cumulative nature of climate change effects on health, mental health, and well-being are critical factors in understanding the overall consequences of climate change on human health (see figure above).
» www.health2016.globalchange.gov
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Events
2-8 May 2016 is the International Composting Awareness Week
Did you know that almost half the waste in the average household red lid bin consists of kitchen and garden organic materials. Most of this can be composted.
» Pledge to compost: www.facebook.com/ICAWaustralia
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Fracking events calendar
There are a few activities coming up in the Geelong Region that are associated with anti-fracking that we would like to bring to your attention:
* Jill Lamshed has produced a play titled ‘Mirror Pond’, which runs at Geelong Shenton Theatre on 24th April 2.30pm, in Cororooke on 7th May 2016.
* Frack Free Moriac will have a Frack Free stall at the Ravens Creek Autumn Fair at 742 Hendy Main Road Moriac between 9:00 and 3.30pm on the Saturday April 24th.
* Tim Forcey who made a well-received submission to the government’s recent Unconventional Gas Inquiry is holding an information night at Winchelsea on 2 May 2016 regarding the benefits or otherwise of connecting to the gas distribution network. His extensive knowledge of the industry is worth listening to – especially if gas prices are to rise in the future as predicted.
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Melbourne events about climate change
Keeping warming below 1.5 degrees. Possible? If so how?
In this seminar, Joeri Rogelj will present the latest scientific literature on 1.5C emission scenarios, abatement costs, mitigation technologies, and carbon budgets.
When: 10:30-11:30am Tuesday 26 April 2016
Where: LAB-14, 700 Swanston Street, Carlton
» www.eventbrite.com
The role of science in climate policy
Jolene Cook, a member of the EU and UK delegations to the UNFCCC, will explain how scientific evidence is delivered to UK and EU climate policymakers and finds its way into the international climate negotiations.
When: 1-2pm Wednesday 27 April 2016
Where: LAB-14, 700 Swanston Street, Carlton
» www.eventbrite.com
After Paris
What needs to happen ‘after Paris’ to avoid an over-heated planet? With speakers David Karoly, John Wiseman and Chris Mulherin.
When: 7:30pm Monday 9 May 2016
Where: Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton
» www.sustainable.unimelb.edu.au
Podcasts and posts about climate change
Streaming live
» The Sustainable Hour is streamed live on the Internet every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time):
www.947thepulse.com – click on ‘Listen Live’
Podcast archive
Hours and hours of sustainable podcasts
Listen to all of The Sustainable Hour radio shows in full length and in selected excerpts:
» Archive on climatesafety.info
» Archive on itunes.apple.com – iPhone friendly
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“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
Pete Seeger, American singer