Our guest in The Sustainable Hour on 10 May 2017 is Samuel Pottenger from 350.org for a talk about Australia’s energy market and about what it means to be an active citizen. Does active citizenship mean, for instance, that you have to call the energy market’s liars, cheaters and greenwashers out? Does it mean protesting loud and clear against banks that lie about their supporting the disastrous Adani coal mine?
Audio clips with Geelong’s Chair of Administrators Dr Kathy Alexander, singer Missy Higgins, Nobel laureate professor Peter Doherty, American author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, comedy duo John Clarke & Bryan Dawe, satire duo Juice Media, stand-up comedian Tom Gleeson, anti-coal mine campaigner Wendy Bowman, and more.
Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 168 on 94.7 The Pulse:
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“A great global transition from fossil fuels to clean energy is under way, much faster than most people think. As a consequence, those choosing to stay addicted to fossil fuels, even if they have a lot of them, are heading for trouble. This is because they are entering a time where much oil, gas and coal will end up un-needed, whether they like it or not.”
~ Jeremy Leggett
“Why is that selfish idiots rule the world and we let it happen?”
~ Allan Begg
LISTENER SERVICE:
Content of this hour
Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
A city waves goodbye to ‘business as usual’
During the next decades, the Geelong city and region is going to transform itself to become a ‘clever and creative city’ if things go as decided by an assembly of 350 local residents who gathered on 6 May 2017 to choose between four proposed future scenarios.
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“Our underground water supply is now particularly threatened by the mining company’s desire for profits and the government’s desire for royalties. Money still speaks louder than the need to protect our environment. This must change.”
~ Wendy Bowman, 83, co-founder of Mine Watch, receipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for her persistent work against coal mines
Shameful energy lies: The Victorian Liberal Party
In The Sustainable Hour we strive to be apolitical and nonpartisan. Our focus is on sustainability, climate safety and how we protect the environment – and we welcome political parties of ALL colours to join. But when politicians more and more ridiculously act like complete fossil fools, (read: puppets on the payroll of the fossil fuel industry), then we have to call it out. Regardless of which party they come from.
The statement that Matthew Guy and the Victorian Liberal Party released today is a continuation of the exact same anti-renewables propaganda as we have seen circulated from numerous fake and anonymous Facebook ‘forums’ such as “Securing Australias Energy”, “Energy in Australia”, “Australian Energy Forum”, “Australian Power Project”, and “The Global Warming Policy Forum” during the last months. Even the language is the same, which really begins to become quite embarrassing for the Liberal Party, because… how low can you go? Using fake news in social media as a political advocacy tool?!
It’s an utterly offensive campaign, which takes us, the energy consumers, for being dum fools who can’t see through the manipulation.
It has nothing to do with economic common sense or so-called “energy security” for energy consumers. Matthew Guy and his fossil-mates have only one single agenda: to try and keep the wheels of the coal and gas industry running for a little while more while doing everything they can to pretend climate change isn’t happening.
If this was just a game of economics, then okay, one could almost feel sorry for them that this is what has become of the Liberal party in Australia. But this is about a suffocating ocean life, a dying Great Barrier Reef, the speeding up the next mass extinction, extreme weather events that kill Australians – possibly our own relatives, or you and me, next time – this is NO JOKE, Mr Guy. You are playing with fire. Climate change is a deadly threat that we need to deal with, and there is no room for fools or greedy pants in that process.
Shameful coal lies and greenwash: Commonwealth Bank
“A new world needs new ways forward” … yeah right!, like helping build the Australia’s biggest coal mine?
Between them, Australia’s Big Four banks lent $10 billion to the fossil fuel industry in 2016, despite all four making commitments to keep global warming to under 2°C degrees. What were those commitments all about, then?
Just recently it turned out that Commonwealth Bank, which has publicly stated that it won’t fund the Adani coal mine, quietly on the side is helping the Adani project get off the ground anyway. Now what is that for a kind of moral?
Here are some of the hundreds of responses which the bank’s customers have posted on its Facebook page, in this case underneath the photo of a boy with an ice-cream and the “A new world needs new ways forward” text:
“Our relationship started out so well, Commonwealth Bank – with our three kids doing “school banking” with you. You talked to our kids about positive and sound principles of saving up, and about preparing for the future. Then we learned how you have been investing millions of dollars in fossil fuel projects even AFTER the Paris Agreement was signed. In other words, we came to understand that Commonwealth Bank is profiting from the polluters that are driving climate change. That made us start looking for another bank that doesn’t do that. Up til now we’ve kept our family’s various accounts with you, however, hoping you might eventually decide to “come clean” and acknowledge that you can’t run a school banking project for young children at the same time as you are funding climate-damaging and destructive fossil fuel projects, putting our common future at risk. The latest news that you are not only bankrolling the big polluters, but directly (but quietly) helping the Adani megamine getting started was the last straw. We’ll have to immediately close our accounts and activities with you. So this is goodbye, Commonwealth Bank. Shame on you! We hope others will do the same.”
~ Mik Aidt
“By aiding and abetting Adani and their coal project, you are betraying all the little dollarmites that faithfully put money in their school accounts ‘for their future’. I get my kid to do this to teach him to think in the long term. It breaks my heart so see his money potenially used for short term profit and to short change the very people who will inherit this sorry mess.”
~ Rodney Berry
“It really is a betrayal of future generations…”
~ Andy Butt
“Commonwealth Bank. Prepared to invest in risky assets with dodgy companies. Do we really want to put our money with a bank that would jeopardise it this way?”
~ Sue Goodrick
“COMMBANK I AM DEEPLY SHOCKED. YOU ARE IMPLICATED AS ADANI CARMICHAEL MINES LARGEST BANKING BACKER, SHAME ON YOU !”
~ Tim Read
“A new world needs new ways forward.”
If that’s truly the belief of anyone apart from the marketing department at CBA, then why are you set to support and fund the Adani coal mine. Bad for the planet, bad for the Great Barrier Reef and at odds with the central argument of your campaign. Fix this situation…and I don’t mean change the campaign slogan.
~ Paul Redfern
“A new world needs new ways forward. This means no to Adani. No to coal. YES to renewables. Absolutely dismayed and disheartened. Closing all accounts and moving the mortgage now. Customer lost.”
~ Gerri Mills
“A new way forward seems very obvious to me; stop funding out dated, environmentally destructive fossil fuel companies. We have all the new technology available to generate clean, green energy, why on earth would you still fund fossil fuels? You CAN make a big difference here! That is a BIG issue and a BIG opportunity you face. As your customer, banking with you has become an issue for me…., I hope you take the opportunity to do better, for Australia, the Earth and our future.”
~ Phoenicia Altaire
CommBank as a regional Victorian, Father and soon to be Grand Father I am deeply concern about the potential impact of climate change on future generations, let alone life as we know it on earth. Your enthusiastic support for the ADANI Carmichael coal mine is simple shocking. I am sure you are fully aware of the climate science and the forecast massive contribution of this mine to the crisis. How on earth can you justify supporting this disaster? I will be very active in regional Victoria mobalizing hundreds to oppose your misguided conduct. We have a very concerned and active community here. You have been warned!
~ Tim Read
New multi-billion-dollar gas plant
A new $5.5 billion-dollar gas plant at Longford in Victoria’s east will process 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to eastern Australia. Esso says that is enough to power a city of a million people for 35 years.
The project, by Esso Australia and its joint partners BHP Billiton and Japanese company Mitsui, is the largest domestic gas development on Australia’s east coast.
There is just one problem. The new Bass Strait gas fields Kipper and Turrum contain high levels of carbon dioxide which must be removed from the gas before it is ready for sale. So the purpose of this new multi-billion-dollar gas facility is to capture 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the raw gas and then to release that carbon dioxide straight into our Earth’s atmosphere.
Ahhh, let’s not talk about that, Esso seems to think.
» ABC News – 7 May 2017:
Esso’s new $5.5b Longford plant to ‘boost production’ for Australian energy market
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Destruction part of the business plan
The oil and gas company Santos admits its business plans are based on a climate change scenario of a 4°C rise in global temperatures. What form of climate denialism is this? Delusional greed?
But… 4°C warming equals a catastrophe. “Not our problem!,” Santos executives seems to think. And of course, what happens in 50 years won’t be chairman Peter Coates’ problem at a personal level, because he is most likely dead and gone by then. But does he really have such disrespect for those who come after him?
Apparently! Santos has admitted its business plans are based on a climate change scenario of a 4°C rise in global temperatures, disregarding that it is at odds with internationally agreed efforts.
Santos chairman Peter Coates made the comments at Santos Annual General Meeting in Adelaide, telling shareholders it was “sensible” and “consistent with good value”.
Experts call it ‘a breathtaking failure to come to grips with a world in transition’.
» The Guardian – 5 May 2017:
Oil company Santos admits business plan is based on 4C temperature rise
“I think the revelation from Santos this past week that they are working on a 4°C temperature rise (the BAU case in many modelling studies) has let the cat out of the bag. I suspect that they either believe or know that the government is also assuming a rise of this magnitude is unavoidable now, and have decided to do nothing but make a few window dressing actions, like a pathetic RET or a few subsidised solar or wind projects. If this is correct, then we need to start planning urgently for how we are going to survive in such a world.”
~ Phil Morgan
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Perpetrators of climate genocide
How is it that rich and highly intelligent people – and in particular the CEOs of fossil fuel companies – do still not regard climate change as something that will upset their business models?
It appears they are generally saying (or quietly whispering, or just thinking) something like: “2°C or 4°C global warming…. who cares, really? Climate change is not about us, it is about them.”
‘Them’ being the poorest of nations – the millions who live in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, in Africa, the Pacific Islands, and so on.
“If you thought the global refugee crisis was bad today, just wait a few decades,” says Michael T. Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently of the book ‘The Race for What’s Left’.
“A number of societies will simply disintegrate in the fashion of South Sudan today, producing staggering chaos and misery,” Klare says. He believes US president Trump, the federal US government and its partners in the fossil fuel industry will be ‘the true perpetrators of climate genocide’.
“People will die in vast numbers without hope of help”
Later in this century many of the worst-case climate-change scenarios – the inundation of coastal cities, the desertification of vast interior regions, and the collapse of rain-fed agriculture in many areas – will become everyday reality.
“Think of the developments in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen as previews of what far larger parts of our world could look like in another quarter-century or so: a world in which hundreds of millions of people are at risk of annihilation from disease or starvation, or are on the march or at sea, crossing borders, heading for the shantytowns of major cities, looking for refugee camps or other places where survival appears even minimally possible.
If the world’s response to the current famine catastrophe and the escalating fears of refugees in wealthy countries are any indication, people will die in vast numbers without hope of help.”
…and the international response so far, essentially: a giant shrug of indifference. The CEOs and politicians who knowingly are responsible for this mess continue, as we saw Australia’s deputy prime minister do it on national tv last week, to defend building new coal mines and causing even more havoc than we are already lined up to. It’s sheer madness driven by delusional greed.
» Energy Post – 28 April 2017:
Climate change is not democratic: inaction equals annihilation of the poor
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“The oil players all embrace renewable energy, but they do not regard it as something that will upset their business models.”
~ Karel Beckman, Energy Post’s editor-in-chief, reporting from Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi
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Climate change is a crime against our community
“To destroy our planet with malice aforethought, with only the most immediate profits on the brain, with only your own comfort and wellbeing (and those of your shareholders) in mind: Isn’t that the ultimate crime? Isn’t that terracide?”
~ Tom Engelhardt, essayist and editor
» The Guardian – 9 May 2017:
Planet could breach 1.5°C warming limit within 10 years, but be aware of caveats
“A new study shows how a switch in a major climate system could accelerate global temperatures to a 1.5°C limit, but some scientists are challenging the assumptions”
The 1.5°C global warming target in the Paris Agreement could be breached in 10 years. There are some arguments over definitions, but it does show just how in the thick of problems we now are – and all because of incompetent and corrupt leadership in a democratic system that was hijacked by a careless fossil fuel industry which thinks making good money at the moment is more important than whether we all and future generations have a safe future.
It really is time to hold the rogue climate villains accountable for this crime against humanity. Calling for a Terracide Tribunal, as Tom Engelhardt does – and a Climate Emergency Declaration, as the Australian Climate Emergency Declaration campaign does.
» The Guardian – 5 May 2017:
Clive Hamilton: The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it
» BGR – 4 May 2017:
Stephen Hawking: Humans will need to colonise another planet within the next 100 years to survive climate change
» Energy Post – 28 April 2017:
Michael T. Klare: Climate change is not democratic: inaction equals annihilation of the poor
“There can be no greater crime against humanity than the foreseeable, and methodical, destruction of conditions that make human life possible. The moral, and existential, implications of human-caused climate change should by now have triggered full-scale, World War II style effort to end fossil fuel dependence and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
The global community ought to have engaged in a renewable energy “arms race” years ago. Instead, we burn away time while fossil fuel interests fund negligent campaigns of disinformation and politicians stage fake debates over the science of climate change.”
Lawrence Torcello, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology in the United States
» The Guardian – 30 April 2017:
Yes, I am a climate alarmist. Global warming is a crime against humanity
» Retweet:
I wish everyone would read this powerful piece by Lawrence Torcello: on climate change as a crime against humanity: https://t.co/0Slphn5gQE
— Peter Singer (@PeterSinger) April 29, 2017
Energy and pollution
Power for Change: Australia’s shackled energy system
350 Australia wrote in a newsletter on 9 May 2017:
Last night’s Four Corners episode laid bare what has been obvious for some time – Australia’s energy market is in ruins.[1] It’s dirty. It’s expensive. And it’s dominated by a handful of companies. Rightly Four Corners pointed the finger at Federal Governments for over a decade of failed climate and energy policy.
But flying under the radar, as they so often do, were the three companies that profiteer from this broken energy system – AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia. These Big Polluters helped write the rules that keep us shackled to fossil fuel energy, whilst prices sore and our health suffers.
Are you sick of paying too much for dirty polluting power? Then it’s time to use your Power for Change.
Power for Change is connecting thousands of customers and community groups across Australia to take back our power. Together we are standing up to the Big Polluters by divesting our homes and communities of their dirty power. Together we will create a groundswell of support to demand clean energy from our political leaders.
Take a moment to join something powerful.
Onwards for a safe climate,
Moira and Josh for the Power for Change team
[1] ABC 4 Corners 8 May 2017
» 350 Australia is building a global climate movement. You can connect with 350 Australia on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and become a Climate Defender and donate monthly to help 350 Australia keep Australia’s fossil fuels in the ground.
» One Step Off the Grid – 10 May 2017:
The energy revolution is here – but are consumers invited?
“Early adopters of rooftop solar, and now battery storage, have got Australia’s energy revolution well underway. But what’s in it for those of us still smarting from a 200% increase in power bills? And how can we make the new energy market a fair one?”
PERSPECTIVE:
How can Smart Distribution Grids power Europe’s green transition?
State of Green asked four decision makers to share their perspectives on the role of smart distribution grids and how they can power Europe’s green transition.
Why are smart energy systems important for Europe’s green transition? What are the biggest challenges of transitioning the energy systems? How will a smarter energy system will affect the daily lives of the European citizens?
» Read their insights on www.stateofgreen.com
ADDITIONALLY:
In other news
From our notes of this week: news stories and events we didn’t have time to mention but which we think you should know about
Divestment
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Take it from The Financial Times
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. They write:
“A growing number of pension funds across the world have decided to fully or partially divest from companies that generate revenues from oil, gas and coal. Their withdrawal from these sectors comes as concerns mount that carbon-intensive businesses could incur significant financial losses as governments attempt to tackle climate change. (…)
According to data from 350.org, an organisation that campaigns for divestment, more than 700 large investors have committed to cutting their exposure to fossil fuels in recent years. A spokesperson for 350.org says: “The rapid rise of renewable energy and the Paris climate agreement send strong signals to investors that the age of fossil fuels is coming to a rapid end. Their business model is simply outdated and they already struggle economically. It only makes sense for prudent investors to distance themselves from a rogue and dying industry.”
~ Excerpt from article in Financial Times on 28 April 2017
» Financial Times – 28 April 2017:
Growing number of pension funds divest from fossil fuels
“Schemes move away from companies that generate revenues from oil, gas and coal”
The renewable reality
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Climate change
“Depletion of dissolved oxygen in our oceans, which can cause dead zones, is occurring much faster than expected, a new study finds. And by combining oxygen loss with ever-worsening ocean warming and acidification, humans are re-creating the conditions that led to the worst-ever extinction, which killed over 90 percent of marine life 252 million years ago.”
» ThinkProgress – 8 May 2017:
Carbon pollution is suffocating ocean life and speeding up the next mass extinction
“Oxygen levels ‘falling 2 to 3 times faster than predicted’ in our warming oceans, study finds”
» The Guardian – 5 May 2017:
The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it
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Changing the conversation
“While there has long been scientific consensus that humanity is influencing our environment for the worse, public consensus has yet to be attained. When it comes communicating climate change, sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words. (…)
Let’s face facts, and, overwhelmingly, they support the reality of climate change. But that’s not to say that there can’t be legitimate discussion on how to combat it. New environmental regulations on the federal level often get pushback, but could we incentivize development of green technology in the private sector? Could we implement stronger environmental initiatives locally? There are even some out-of-the-box solutions we could consider.
Rather than denying that there is a problem, we should be focusing our energy on determining the best solution. After all, the fate of the entire planet is at stake here.”
Christianna Reedy
» Futurism – 7 May 2017:
Five Graphics to Start a Conversation About Climate Change
“What we are witnessing is a total system change. It has happened before, in not much more than a decade, when the horseless carriage replaced the horse-drawn carriage. And this system change is capable in principle of changing the face of civilisation: much for the better. Renewables have so many social advantages over fossil fuels, from the bottom of the energy ladder to the top.”
~ Jeremy Leggett
The Danish concept of ‘Hygge’
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“We need to sort this out ourselves”
“Forget the politicians. Forget them! They are not going to help us. Not because they don’t want to. They can’t. We need to sort out the shit that we’re in ourselves.”
~ Kim Laudrup, Danish builder and entrepreneur, in ABC Foreign Correspondent’s ‘The Home Show’
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“Solve your problems yourself”
“A wonderful thing happens when you give up on hope, which is that you realize you never needed it in the first place. You realize that giving up on hope didn’t kill you, nor did it make you less effective. In fact it made you more effective, because you ceased relying on someone or something else to solve your problems — you ceased hoping your problems somehow get solved, through the magical assistance of God, the Great Mother, the Sierra Club, valiant tree-sitters, brave salmon, or even the Earth itself — and you just began doing what’s necessary to solve your problems yourself …. When you give up on hope, you lose a lot of fear. And when you quit relying on hope, and instead begin to just protect those you love, you become dangerous indeed to those in power.”
~ Derrick Jensen, ‘Endgame, Volume 1, The Problem of Civilization’, 2006
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Live your truth – be the change
“You don’t need to write some self-help book with the intention it’s going to save people, or become Tony Robbins, or go build 12 schools in Colombia to save our planet — you want to save our planet? Live your god damn truth. Speak your truth, be your truth, live your truth — and go make some money off your truth while you’re at it.”
~ Janne Robinson
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Stand up for the issue of climate change
“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause.
And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer.
You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
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Juice Media: Honest government advertisement
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Stop Adani Roadshow introduction video
Missy Higgins introduced audiences with this eight-minute video during the sold out #StopAdani Roadshow. It is worth watching
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Stop Adani | Geelong
We look forward to seeing you at Beav’s Bar on the 24th of May. In the meanwhile, here are some #StopAdani related activities you could consider taking part in or doing:
» Join our own local ‘club house’ on Facebook. We have a group on Facebook for group discussions, suggestions, ideas and recommendations
» Come to our meeting on 24 May and RSVP on the Facebook event page – so your friends can see you are going
» Tell Commonwealth Bank what you think about their quietly helping Adani while publicly stating they won’t invest in the Adani megamine. More than 250 angry Commonwealth Bank felt provoked to respond to this photo and the “A new world needs new ways forward” text on the bank’s Facebook page. Great if you would leave a comment too! – just click on the photo, and comment underneath it
» Write a letter to a newspaper
» Here is a list of petitions you can consider adding your name to – and supporting by sharing with your friends:
• Demand the Queensland Government holds Adani to account! Stop the mine before it starts! – Georgia B
Petitioning Dr Steven Miles, Minister for Environment & Heritage Protection & Minister for National Parks & the Great Barrier Reef
• Stop Free Water for Adani – Australian Youth Climate Coalition
QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has given a water license to Adani that would drain billions of litres of precious QLD water for free. Sign this petition to show the QLD Government you’re outraged at this out of touch pandering to the coal industry.
• Beyond coal: replace coal with clean energy – The Greens
Call on State, Territory and Federal governments to work together on a plan for the retirement of all coal-fired power stations and a just transition for the workers and their communities.
• Stop Funding Coal! – Australian Marine Conservation Society
Send Prime Minister Turnbull an email making it clear that Adani’s Carmichael coal mine, Abbott Point coal terminal and rail link are a threat to our Reef and should not go ahead.
• CommBank: Stop funding new coal – Greenpeace
Petitioning CommBank CEO Ian Narev: Coal is polluting our world and threatening irreplaceable wonders like our Great Barrier Reef. I call on CommBank to help protect our Reef and power a renewable energy future by immediately committing to stop funding new coal projects.
• Our Great Barrier Reef needs renewable energy, not dirty coal – Australian Marine Conservation Society
Petitioning Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to tell them that the future of the Reef relies on a rapid transition to renewable energy.
• Stop Adani’s Carmichael coal mine – Australian Conservation Foundation
Send your MP the Adani Brief. Tell them support for Adani means no support from you.
• Stop Adani destroying our land and our culture – Adrian Burragubba
“We, the Wangan and Jagalingou people, are the traditional owners of the land in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. We call on Adani to IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAW from this damaging project on our land. 100,000 signatures reached about a year ago.
• Malcolm, keep your promise! Don’t give Adani $1 billion to wreck our reef! – GetUp
Prime Minister Turnbull, during the election you said there would be no public funding for Adani. Adani’s Reef-killing coal mine is not public infrastructure. Don’t waste taxpayers’ money on it.
• We will not let this coal mine go ahead – 350 Australia
Tell Minister Canavan that you won’t accept taxpayers funding the Carmichael Coal mine at a time when we need to keep all fossil fuels in the ground.
• Coal or the reef? – The Australian Greens
Call on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to reject the reckless expansion of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal.
• Premier Palaszczuk, special treatment for Adani must end – Environmental Defenders Office Queensland
Please Premier, stop giving Adani special treatment, and stand up for Queensland.
• Renewables for the Reef – Australian Marine Conservation Society
Tell the Queensland Government that Australia needs the Reef and renewables – not more coal mines and more carbon pollution.
• It’s time to come clean about the economics of coal – The Australia Institute
Add your name to the open letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asking for some straight answers. No new coal mines!
• Tell your bank to ditch fossil fuels! – Australian Youth Climate Coalition
Petition calling on the big banks to keep warming at a safe level by ditching funding for fossil fuel projects like Adani’s.
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» Community meeting with film screening on 24 May 2017 at Beav’s Bar: Launch of Stop Adani Geelong
See more
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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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