Becoming indigenous to place

Australian matters, Local Geelong matters


Our guest in The Sustainable Hour on 6 September 2017 is Mark Dekker, who is an urban planner, organic farmer, youth outreach worker and Transition Street mobiliser.

We also play a short excerpt from a speech held by the Victorian Minister for Local Government, Natalie Hutchins as Geelong’s ‘Clever and Creative Future’ vision document was launched on 30 August. And a clip from the speech ALP leader Bill Shorten held at the G21 Forum on 1 September in Torquay, where he spoke out of both sides of the mouth about how he believes it is possible at the same time to back the climate science and allow new megasize coal mines to go ahead.


Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 185 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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Becoming indigenous to the spaces where we live

“Get amongst it. Connect to the place that you are at,” says Mark Dekker, urban planner, organic farmer, youth outreach worker – and our guest in The Sustainable Hour today for an in-depth conversation about reconnecting, reinvigorating and becoming indigenous to the spaces where we live.

“Now we see men in their 25s to 35s playing 20+ hours a week of Playstation and Xbox. That’s pretty frightening, when we could be out cooking BBQs and getting to know our neighbours,” says Mark.

In the future, “regardless of whether the banks are still surviving, or governments actually exist, there is going to be laughter, there is going to be humanity, there is going to be camp fires and yarns. Some of the most important things that we need to do as a people is get amongst it, to reinvigorate our carnivals and dance and sing!”

» More below


 LISTENER SERVICE: 

Content of this hour

Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour






Labor leader: We will not stop Adani

When federal party leaders met with local leaders of our region in Torquay for the annual G21 Forum, opposition leader Bill Shorten was asked a question by a member of #StopAdani Geelong and Geelong Sustainability about the Adani coal mine in Queensland.

We hope our local #StopAdani Geelong group was listening, or will listen below, because what he said, basically, was that Labor thinks this climate-destroying mine will go ahead and that his party has no intentions of trying to stop that.

So when Labor won’t, others will. There’s a #StopAdani ‘Big Day of Action’ coming up on 7 October 2017. And Geelong’s local #StopAdani community group will be meeting on Saturday 16 September 2017 at the Geelong library for a ‘Tactic and action planning session’, starting at 10am.

» Find out more on www.facebook.com/StopAdaniGeelong

Audio: Bill Shorten on Adani

Here are the exact words – so that you know exactly how a confused opposition leader thinks he is able to claim at the same time that a coalmine can “stand up” environmentally and that Labor are – quote: “un-afraid on the climate debate” and “will back the science”, while, with the other side of his mouth, he rejects all the climate disruptions happening around Australia and the world, including the climate scientists’ dire warnings, and defends this shockingly irresponsible decision of building this megamine.

The Queensland Premier is directly and outspokenly supporting the construction of that Adani coalmine, even though everyone knows it will be sending millions of tonnes of climate and reef destructive carbon dioxide into our common atmosphere.

If Shorten had any credibility left, it all crumbled in Torquay. He will talk about climate change whenever it is politically convenient, but little does it matter when it is all talk and no real action. Shorten has joined the ranks of elected leaders who shamefully choose to disregard the consequences of burning more coal and to ignore what the burning of coal means for everyone who lives on this planet.

The speech was recorded by 94.7 The Pulse who had Mitchell Dye broadcasting live from the entire six-hour event.









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Dig deeper into No-Dig

Inspirational links and more info about the topics and people Mark Dekker talked about in the program

The Sustainable Hour will be talking No-Dig gardens, No-Till Farming and sequestration of carbon with youth outreach worker and environmentalist Mark Dekker in next week’s program. 

Mark Dekker studied Environmental Planning at Griffith University, motivated by seeking knowledge about the best methods for healing the planet, utilising natural systems.


Darren J. Doherty
“Regenerating, restoring, rehabilitating, rekindling and rebooting production landscapes across this planet.”
www.regrarians.org

Darren J. Doherty on Regrarianism
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uiX00gK3yj4 

Singing Frogs Farm:
No-till Farmers Elizabeth and Paul Kaiser Keynote 2017 NOFA/Mass Winter Conference

Joel Salatin
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jBZgANtcXm8 

Joel Salatin raises livestock using holistic management methods of animal husbandry on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct marketing to consumers and restaurants.

Polyface Farms
www.polyfacefarms.com

Charles Dowding
Channel on YouTube
 
Charles Dowding: No Dig Organic Gardening
www.charlesdowding.co.uk

Transition Geelong
www.transitiongeelong.com.au

» Contact Mark Dekker


TEDxDubbo | Tony Lovell: Soil carbon – Putting carbon back where it belongs – In the Earth

Tony Lovell will explain the reasoning behind how more green growing plants means more captured carbon dioxide — more water — more production — more biodiversity — more profit. Did you know that a 1% change in soil organic matter across just one-quarter of the World’s land area could sequester 300 billion tonnes of physical CO2.

Published on 10 September 2011.


TEDxCharlottesville | Joel Salatin: Cows, Carbon and Climate

Joel Salatin, an organic farmer located in the Shanendoah Valley in Virginia, loves his grass – and so do his cows. In this talk Salatin outlines the role that this often unsung hero of the plant world plays in sustainable farming, and the effects that its efficient utilization can have on the world around us.

Published on 14 January 2016.




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Just and sustainable food system

“Changing the food system is the most important thing humans can do to fix our broken carbon cycles. Meanwhile, food security is all about adaptation when you’re dealing with crazy weather and shifting growing zones. How can a world of 7 billion — and growing —
feed itself? Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system.”

» Yes Magazine – 8 September 2017:
How to Feed Ourselves in a Time of Climate Crisis
“Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system, from saving seeds to curbing food waste.”


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Civilizations collapse

“Civilizations over the past 6,000 years have unfailingly squandered their futures through acts of colossal stupidity and hubris. We are probably not an exception. The physical ruins of these empires, including the Mesopotamian, Roman, Mayan and Indus, litter the earth. They elevated, during acute distress, inept and corrupt leaders who channeled anger, fear and dwindling resources into self-defeating wars and vast building projects. The ruling oligarchs, driven by greed and hedonism, retreated into privileged compounds — the Forbidden City, Versailles — and hoarded wealth as their populations endured mounting misery and poverty. The worse it got, the more the people lied to themselves and the more they wanted to be lied to. Reality was too painful to confront. They retreated into what anthropologists call “crisis cults,” which promised the return of the lost world through magical beliefs.

“The most significant characteristic of modern civilization is the sacrifice of the future for the present,” philosopher and psychologist William James wrote, “and all the power of science has been prostituted to this purpose.”

We are entering this final phase of civilization, one in which we are slashing the budgets of the very agencies that are vital to prepare for the devastation ahead — the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with programs at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration dealing with climate change. Hurricane after hurricane, monster storm after monster storm, flood after flood, wildfire after wildfire, drought after drought will gradually cripple the empire, draining its wealth and resources and creating swathes of territory defined by lawlessness and squalor.”
~ Chris Hedges

» CommonDreams – 11 September 2017:
The Great Flood
“We are entering this final phase of civilization, one in which we are slashing the budgets of the very agencies that are vital to prepare for the devastation ahead.”



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“Our strategy is to lift our game”

“In my view most of us who are activists need to raise our game. In 2014 Joel Makower, CEO of GreenBiz, commented: ‘Despite its real achievements, the sustainability movement is failing.’ Unless we think innovatively and mobilise passionate mainstream commitment to turning things around the continuation of business as usual will take current trends to their dismal conclusion.”
Andrew Gaines



Self-initiated action and education as the key to success

Andrew Gaines has a vision about creating transformative change by creating a global citizen-led educational movement. In order to accelerate a transition to a life-sustaining society, Gaines has developed a model – and a website with teaching tools – called ‘Inspiring Transition’.

“I’m committed to transitioning to a life-sustaining civilisation. I think that engaging thoughtful mainstream commitment to large-scale systemic change is essential for success. The Inspiring Transition model is to engage thousands of groups and their members as citizen educators, and provide open source ready-to-use communication tools. Let’s do it!,” encourages Andrew Gaines.

Andrew Gaines is a psychotherapist as well as a humorist, a creativity trainer and a Feldenkrais practitioner – who communicates about whole system change, helping people “think better”, as he writes on his LinkedIn profile. Gaines ambitious goal is to make hundreds of thousands of us, even millions, to realise that we – each one of us – need to communicate and educate about transformative change – while at the same time, at a personal level, getting on with it.

Andrew Gaines writes:

“School children learn about Antarctic ice shelves and global warming. Massive stuff. On current trends they will certainly experience traumatic societal disruption as global food supplies collapse and ever more violence emerges. Many young people already experience acute despair, and some young women do not want to bring children into the world because they fear what is coming. It was like this when the threat of nuclear war was on everyone’s mind.

Despair destroys the spirit. What might possibly give young people realistic hope?

I think there is only one thing. Young people will have hope when they see that society as a whole is passionately committed to reversing global warming and other trends (including arms build-up), and successfully transitioning to a life-sustaining society.

How would they know that this commitment exists?

Just as in wartime everyone speaks about the war, so people everywhere would be talking about transitioning to a life-sustaining society. Politicians would affirm this as our goal (rather than economic increase). They would justify policy decisions on the basis of their contribution to the transition to a life-sustaining society.

Both NGOs and businesses would frame their work as a contribution to the Great Transition to a life-sustaining society. Some would advertise their commitment. The media would regularly report on improvements in environmental indicators (while noting how much more we have to do).

Since a profound cultural shift is required, more resources would go into fostering personal creativity, inner well-being and community connection. Collectively we must become the kind of people who can create and enjoy a life-sustaining society,

Cultivating inner resources of well-being and joy in life would greatly reduce people’s dependency on material things for a sense of satisfaction and self-worth, and thus reduce compulsive excess consumption.

In time, CO2 levels would start to decline and environmental statistics improve. The mass media would report that we are making progress in transitioning to a life-sustaining society. At this point hope would seem realistic.

The ultimate test of effectiveness
Ultimately, the test is: are we living within planetary boundaries? Have we evolved a society that does is best to take care of people, communities and the environment? If so, we would have, not a new world order, but simply a new world. It will be much more loving than the world we now experience.

How might we act to make hope realistic for young people?

By masses of us communicating through our networks to inspire mainstream commitment to transitioning to a life-sustaining society.

Each of us can do this through our own initiative.”

Andrew Gaines


» Ready-to-use communication tools are at www.inspiringtransition.net

» Download Kitchen Table Conversations – The Manual (PDF, 38 pages)

» Connect with Andrew Gaines on LinkedIn

» Facebook page: www.facebook.com/InspiringTransition

Invitation email to send to networks

“Perhaps you will play a role?”, asks Andrew Gaines. “Participating need not take too much of your time. The simplest thing you could do would be to tweak this email text and send it to your networks. Another important role is to personally engage leaders of organisations and thought leaders.”

Here is an example of what the letter could look like. Tweak it and make it yours:

Dear

This email is to invite you to consider participating in an audacious project. It is called the Great Transition Initiative. Its purpose is to inspire a new order of intelligent public commitment to dealing with the great issues of our time.

Politics today is often about polarities. But the urgent issues of environmental degradation (through such trends as ocean acidification, dropping freshwater tables around the world and large-scale species loss) are far beyond partisan politics. It appears that we are in a global ecological emergency requiring a massive change in the way our industrial society operates if we are to have the possibility of a hopeful future for coming generations.

Well – this is not small stuff!

Transitioning to a life-sustaining society, rather than continuing on our present course of ecological self-destruction, will seem impossible to many. The prospect can seem so mammoth that it is even difficult to think about it.

But there is a way. There are millions of individuals and groups that care about environmental and social well-being. Although we have our divergent agendas, and this is as it should be, we can make common cause in our intention to transition to a life-sustaining society.

So the idea behind the Great Transition Initiative is for as many of us as possible to voluntarily communicate about transitioning to a life-sustaining society through our networks. Our combined networks are massive; we reach into every level of society.

The Great Transition Initiative website has ready-to-use tools to make communicating as easy as possible.

I would be pleased if you would investigate the Great Transition Initiative approach; it is quite well-thought-out. And if it makes sense to you, begin to communicate with your own networks.

Communicating about transitioning to a life-sustaining society need not take too much of your time. And you do not have to join an organization. In fact, the Great Transition Initiative is not an organization in the usual sense. It is an independent movement of people who are aligned our commitment to transitioning to a life-sustaining society. Seeing that communication is essential for success, we just get on with it.

I hope that you will consider lending your influence to this.

With warm regards,

» Source: app.box.com

» Listen to The Sustainable Hour podcast where we interviewed Andrew Gaines:
Key to our future: citizen-led education, life-long learning



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Transition Streets in Geelong

‘Inspiring Transition’ is similar but not at all the same as the Transition movement, which for many years have been about creating ‘Transition Towns’, and which more recently is gaining new ground with the idea of creating ‘Transition Streets’, where neighbours participate in making changes in their lives in five areas: energy, transport, food, water and waste and consumption.

Here’s a Facebook page to start to find people in your area and to access the Transition Street process and workbook.

Want to start your own Transition Street? Three steps

1. Get together about 6–8 householders in your street or nearby. You can use this page to call out to others who may be in your area if you’re uncomfortable door knocking or putting letters in people’s letterboxes. You may want to print one workbook first or email them the PDF so you can show people what you’re proposing.

2. Download a printable copy of the 180 page Workbook (or ask your Member of Parliament to print some for you if funds are tight) for each household here

In Geelong, Sarah Henderson’s office have printed 25 copies of the Transition Street workbook up to chapter 2, and Christine Couzens has offered soon to put the word out to her whole electorate about starting Transition Streets.

3. Schedule seven meetings for reading each chapter and chosing something to do. They could be one a month for example. People could opt to stop after that or keep connecting. » Read more

4. Celebrate your group and post photos and stories on this Facebook page to inspire us all


New “central” home page for Transition groups in Geelong

A new home page has been established to help people in the City of Greater Geelong find each other to start new Transition Streets or other Transition initiatives. It is also to share helpful information for the transition process.

» See: www.transitiongeelong.com.au

» Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TransitionCOGG





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Billy Bragg: ‘King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood’

Singer Billy Bragg has addressed the dangers of global warming in his new single ‘King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood’.

The folk rock star said he felt obliged to address the struggles in Florida, California, where peoples livelihoods are being ruined by torrential floods caused by the rise in the sea level due to the melting ice-caps in the Antarctic, reported Contactmusic. Speaking about the stark realities of climate change, Billy said:

“Sunny day flooding is a coastal phenomenon in which strong tides cause water to gush up from drains and beneath the ground, swamping basements and inundating roads. Rises in sea level due to melting ice-caps are making it an increasingly common occurrence in Florida, where some residential areas are experiencing it on an almost monthly basis.

These communities are canaries in the mine, already living with the stark realities of climate change that some still deny is happening. On a planet the surface of which is 70 per cent water, in which the temperature of oceans drives our weather systems, we will all be affected by global warming unless we act now to limit the damage done.”




 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

Short-term vested interests and long-term savings

“Officials never took the report seriously.” “They were warned, but no one listened…” Sounds familiar?

This article and radio segment shows that the disaster in Houston was foreseeable, and that man-made closed surfaces contributed to what is now the costliest disaster in United States history.

Unfortunately, this illustrates the global situation: It will cost more to create sustainable consumption, a fossil-free energy system, flash-flood-safe cities, and so on, but in the long run it will prove to be the world’s best investment.

We are confronted with a collosal conflict between short-term vested interests and long-term savings.



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» San Fransisco Chronicle – 21 August 2017:
Growing concern: Organic farms need a new generation to keep them alive




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The 10 biggest global concerns.
From climate change and destruction of nature to lack of education and employment, here’s what’s worrying the world’s young adults.

This country generates enough renewable energy to power 70% of homes.
Australia has sharpened its focus on transitioning to cleaner power. The country has increased renewable energy projects and is looking for grid-scale energy storage to support it.

Where does ocean plastic come from?
We do know that marine wildlife is suffering greatly from the effects of plastic pollution right now. Animals are frequently caught and suffocated in floating garbage, and many ingest it, mistaking it for food.

After The Flood: When Too Early Is Too Late.
As Brookings points out in an excellent post, the flooding in Texas is another cruel opportunity to learn lessons about how the United States reacts to weather disasters at the local as well as national levels.

 



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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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“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
Pete Seeger, American singer