A teenager’s, a kayaker’s, a raingarden-maker’s and a festival leader’s call for change:
In the Sustainable Hour on 8 February 2017 we talk with Luke Taylor, leader of the Sustainable Living Festival, about the festival’s ambitious call for strong climate action – and with professor Rob Skinner about what sustainable water can do for liveability in a city.
We also get an update from kayaking climate campaigner Steve Posselt, and we play an audio clip with a question from 16-year-old high school student Jack Nyhof – and a brilliant new video-poem about the climate emergency.
Links and more info below.
Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 155 on 94.7 The Pulse:
» To open or download this programme in mp3-format, right-click here (Mac: CTRL + click)
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“It’s time to tell the truth.”
Steve Posselt, kayaking climate action campaigner
“Every single person alive right now is complicit in the downfall of our biosphere.”
Joe Brewer
LISTENER SERVICE:
Content of this hour
Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
New climate change song: Show the love
“Together we can protect the places and life we love from climate change.”
» Read more on www.fortheloveof.org.uk
» Share on Facebook
“Broken hearted today … today is a tough day to get through. Images etched into my retina of refugees being refused shelter, of palestinians losing their land, of biodiversity lost, of coral reefs dying, of corporate greed and callousness, of rascism and fascism on the rise. Of patriarchy and misogyny, of women raped to subdue populations. Of children growing up never knowing safety and love… Of fear and aggression, of trauma … Of my own background coming back to haunt me. My heart feels exposed and raw …”
Irene Eisler
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ABC’s Q&A:
Jack Nyhof: Should we be suing our government?
By failing to act on climate change, the Australian government is clearly violating its duty of care to the Australian people. In ABC’s Q&A on 6 February 2017, Jack Nyhof managed to get this message across to millions of Australian viewers when he suggested this in in the shape of a question:
» Share the clip on Facebook
Jack Nyhof from Geelong High School asked:
“I’m a 16-year-old high school student. I’m frustrated, angry, and scared political leaders aren’t doing enough. Our government supports fossil fuels and the construction of the biggest coal mine in the southern hemisphere. This disregards the land rights of Indigenous Australians and would be a climate catastrophe. Do you think the young people of Australia should be suing our government for failing to act on climate change, violating its duty of care to the Australian people?”
» See Jack Nyhof’s question and the replies from the panel on this video, and discuss it or give your answer to it by posting a comment on this Facebook page: www.facebook.com/abcqanda/videos
» More information about the show on www.abc.net.au
Meanwhile in Australia pic.twitter.com/Y3DoHfgByH
— Schadenfreude George (@GeorgeBludger) February 11, 2017
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Melbourne festival aims high: “Big impact for big change”
Interview with Sustainable Living Festival director Luke Taylor about his ambition for a festival that dares to grasp with “the mother of all issues” – the climate emergency.
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Festival links
Sustainable Living Festival’s ‘Big Weekend’ is on this weekend – 10-12 February 2017
» Festival Big Weekend program
» Home page of the Sustainable Living Festival
Climate emergency focus at Sustainable Living Festival
Climate emergency highlights
Not to miss at the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne:
Sunday afternoon 12 February at Under the Gum:
• How Councils Can Reverse Global Warming
• Climate Trumped
• Paul Gilding – Great Disruption to Great Transition
Wednesday evening 15 February:
• Tim Flannery: Why We Must Declare A Climate Emergency
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Rob Skinner: What sustainable water can do for liveability in a city
Professor Rob Skinner, director and CEO, Monash Water for Liveability, talks about tangible things we can do as a city – not just preparing ourselves for what’s coming, but improving our city – making it greener, cooler and more beautiful. The interview runs in the second half of the hour.
» Geelong Advertiser – 6 February 2017:
Storm hits Geelong, closing Reading cinema and causing flash flooding
» ABC – 26 January 2016:
Geelong weather: 18 people rescued in ‘one-in-50-year’ flash flooding
“Cars have been submerged, 18 people rescued and buildings damaged during flash flooding in Geelong after a severe storm unleashed a huge downpour, before moving towards Melbourne.”
» Geelong Advertiser / Herald Sun – 19 February 2014:
Flash flooding wreaks havoc in Geelong
» Water Sensitive Cities:
www.watersensitivecities.org.au
» Monash Water for Liveability:
www.waterforliveability.org.au
» Monash University:
Treated stormwater safe for growing food
» City of Monash:
Rain gardens
» Melbourne Water:
Water saving tips
Water sensitive urban design
» State Government of Victoria:
Melbourne’s Water Future
“The vision for Melbourne’s Water Future – An integrated and resilient water system, which is planned and managed to support liveable and sustainable communities, protect the environmental health of urban waterways and bays, provide secure water supplies efficiently, protect public health and deliver affordable essential water services.”
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Australian engineer and eco-warrior Steve Posselt has paddled his kayak thousands of kilometers overseas and at home to highlight climate impacts. Right now he is paddling 1,200 kilometres down the New South Wales coast, giving talks and collecting signatures on the Climate Emergency Declaration petition along the way. He will then put his kayak on wheels and drag it 180 kilometres to Canberra to deliver the petition on 25 February 2017.
Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley signing the Climate Emergency Declaration pledge at Greys Beach, North Nowra, with kayaking climate campaigner Steve Posselt and Trish Kahler, Secretary for Shoalhaven Transition Inc. The video was published on youtube.com and Facebook on 8 February 2017.
“There is not a gift that you can give a man who is trying to tow his kayak up the mountain with his sheer body-power, but I just want to reiterate then that the gift that we CAN give to Steve is the gift of our conversation. He has asked us to do that today, and I think that we should make that pledge individually. That is not just about signing the pledge [the climate emergency declaration petition] but it is about pledging to up our ante [Australian expression which means “to do more”] when it comes to having those conversations with everyone that we know. And I know it is really hard to fit it in – as there are so many issues that face Australia today, but this would have to be the Number One Issue, because this is about all of humanity. So give Steve your gift. Give yourself your gift: go out there and talk to your friends. It is all we can do: to move things along.”
~ Mayor Amanda Findley, Shoalhaven
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Steve Posselt’s speech at Greys Beach, North Nowra, on 4 February 2017
» Read more about Steve’s journey on www.climateemergencydeclaration.org/kayak
» Sign the petition on www.climateemergencydeclaration.org/sign
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Steve Posselt: Something wrong with climate deniers’ IQ
Today we interviewed climate champion Steve Posselt live on air at 94.7 The Pulse, where he made a connection between climate deniers and their IQ. Given the current circumstances with the climate and they way Steve formulated it, it made us all laugh in the radio studio. After the show, we reflected on his remark: Should we really need to be saying this just like Steve did, in an outright and straight-forward way – or would that just be counter-productive?
“If you think you are smarter than a united scientific community of the Western world, then, hey… then it is either because you have been paid to say so by the fossil fuel industry or because you don’t have the IQ it takes to actually understand the science.”
In this video Arnold Schwarzenegger says “I would like to strap their mouths to the exhaust pipe of a truck.” Most of us wouldn’t have said it. But when Arnie says it, who’s to argue? 🙂
“Air pollution deaths should not be swept under the carpet to avoid offending the fossil fuel industry and its political lapdogs,” commented barrister Andrew Laird.
We have entered a new phase of the climate emergency where NOT speaking up the sheer madness which is playing out in our parliaments makes you a part of the problem.
In particular if you are a writer, an artist, a journalist, a person with an audience, and not speaking out about what is happening in our world in regard to pollution and the climate emergency, and where we should look for solutions, then… well, we have an untranslatable expression for it in Danish, but I’ll leave that out – the most important message is that it never to late to get on board! 🙂
» www.climateemergencydeclaration.org/sign
» Arnold’s video on YouTube
ADDITIONAL:
In other news
From our notes of this week: news stories and events we think you should know about
“Unfortunately and there is no polite way to put this, your government is knowingly undermining our future and the future of our children. In full knowledge of the facts and long-term impacts, the Australian government is pressing ahead with new coal mines and coal-fired power plants. This directly contradicts global efforts to tackle climate change and puts our communities in peril.”
Excerpt from an open letter from the Pacific to the Australian government
» The Guardian – 7 February 2017:
In Australia and the US, sound climate policy is being held hostage by vested interests
“We must shift away from a culture of politically motivated climate change denialism to an acceptance of the truly existential threat now facing humanity.”
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“We are living in a world where greed has become for the wealthiest people their own religion – and they make no apologies for it.”
Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator
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Five moral foundations
“Recent research into morals explains what the climate change story has been missing. In his book The Righteous Mind, psychologist Jonathan Haidt identifies at least five moral foundations found across human societies: care, fairness, loyalty, authority and sanctity.
Climate change is an extraordinarily long-term problem that requires massive investment in new infrastructure and consistent policy settings over many decades. It needs a supermajority of support so years of work isn’t undone with each change of government. That means getting conservatives on board. But how?
Support for action on climate change needs to survive periods of conservative rule, and that means it also needs a conservative vision and conservative values — even if progressives find their suggestions repugnant. To paraphrase climate change communication expert George Marshall, it’s time for progressives to back off, drop the eco-stuff, and encourage some climate conservatives to step up to the podium.”
» Eureka Street – 1 February 2017:
Appeals to caring and fairness alone can’t bridge climate divide
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Risk of ‘megafires’ to increase with #climatechange https://t.co/oF10z9HYs3 pic.twitter.com/kmJYmMAB9u
— Climate Council (@climatecouncil) February 7, 2017
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Heatwaves to be hotter, longer and more frequent, @climatecouncil report says https://t.co/RGTGDLD4A0 via @ABCNews #climatechange pic.twitter.com/sIXPzQcA7b
— Climate Council (@climatecouncil) February 8, 2017
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Concerned about risks to your #security? #Climatechange – and a lack of #ClimateAction – tops the chart, according to World Economic Forum pic.twitter.com/48PP4C4od4
— UN Climate Action (@UNFCCC) February 8, 2017
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Meanwhile in the Australian clown-circus called the Parliament…
Alex McKinnon wrote in The Guardian: “Morrison and co are kneecapping my generation’s future. And laughing about it.”
Australia’s treasurer thinks that coal is an “important part of our sustainable and more certain energy future”… Yes, that is what he said: “sustainable”. Smiling and laughing clowns – ‘fossil fools’ in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry. If it wasn’t so tragic for Australia it would be hilarious!
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition commented: “For you, it was hilarious. You used it to tell us coal was wonderful, guffawing at your own brilliance. Forgetting the 3,000 Australians who die of air pollution every year, you told us not to worry; coal can’t possibly harm us.”
“Why is our government full of morally bankrupt sociopaths with a vested interest in lining their billionaire mates pockets at the expense of the population and the environment? I thought the sole purpose of becoming an “honorable” member of parliament was to serve the public and the public’s interests. Parliament looks more like a bunch neanderthals throwing excrement at one another than people actually running a country.”
Rebecca Knox
“This is insanity, the US government isnt the only one deally in alternative facts. These science denying morons should not be allowed to hold office. Its selling out the future for all generations to come. Shameful!”
Gavin Corben
“Having lived in the Hunter Valley on and off for 27 years, I assure you that there is a lot of anti coal sentiment when it comes to issues of coal dust, open cut mining and conflicts with other industries such as tourism, viticulture and the equine industry. Especially when you consider that the mining industry employs fewer people than Bunnings… It’s not as one sided as he makes it out to be.”
Jack Maloney
“Many of the talking points being pushed by Turnbull and his ministers have been heavily influenced by sustained lobbying from the coal industry. Documents released under Freedom of Information rules show it can take literally minutes for coal industry lobbyists to secure a meeting with a senior Australian government official.”
Read more:
» DeSmogBlog – 9 February 2017:
Australia’s Treasurer Takes Lump of Coal Into Parliament as Country Braces for More Crippling Heatwaves
Article by Graham Readfearn
Doing their best to kneecap my generation’s future
“As if they’re not satisfied with making our present lives a misery, Morrison and co are doing their best to kneecap my generation’s future as well. Malcolm Turnbull’s government is almost as proudly negligent on the growing existential question of climate change as Tony Abbott’s was. Morrison’s little Punch and Judy show came as Australia’s eastern states braced for a heatwave of unusual length and severity, at the end of a summer that is already – stop me if you’ve heard this one before – the hottest on record.
Today is my 26th birthday. According to current life-expectancy projections, I have about 55 years left – more than enough time to see what a world heated three degrees centigrade past 1950 levels looks like.
On the plus side, being forced to live in holes burrowed into the earth like they do in Coober Pedy will solve the housing crisis nicely.
Still, I can’t say I’m overly thrilled at the prospect of living in a world where tens of millions of displaced Bangladeshis fleeing their flooded country are turned back to drown in the Indian Ocean by Australian frigates. Or where deaths from heat stress – which already kills more Australians than all other types of natural hazards put together – reaches epidemic levels each summer. I genuinely wonder if having kids in a world like that is a good idea.”
Jack Williams, 10 February 2017
Podcasts and posts about climate change
Acknowledgement
We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.
The traditional owners lived in harmony with the environment and with the climate for hundreds of generations. It is not clear – yet – that as European settlers we have demonstrated that we can live in harmony for hundreds of generations, but it is clear that we can learn from the indigenous, traditional owners of this land.
When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that…
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore climate change are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How utterly disgusting, disrespectful and unfair is that?
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