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“The time has come / to pay our share.”
~ Midnight Oil, ‘Beds Are Burning’, 1987
The time has come… for a youth revolution, for carbon drawdown and for keeping the climate-wrecking fossils in the ground – which means putting a full stop to the Adani coal megamine in Queensland.
Our guest in The Sustainable Hour on 19 September 2018, who explains how we will stop Adani, is Charlie Wood from Tipping Point and the #StopAdani movement’s Melbourne HQ.
By royal appointment… Colin Mockett’s World Outlook this week is about a letter he received from the Queen – Australia’s head of state – about the many things she does for sustainability, including responsibly reducing carbon emissions, just like Australia ought to do it as well.
We talk with Jim Crosthwaite, Phil Papas and Max Finlayson about the Wetland Carbon Workshop they run on 18 and 19 September in Melbourne – and with one of the speakers at the workshop, Gene Blackley, who is starting up the ambitious project Drawdown Australia and is looking for people who would like to join him on that journey.
We play an excerpt from Tom Ballard’s brilliant ‘climate change explanation’ on the ABC.
We play a verse from Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds are burning’, and we round the hour off with ‘Stand Up Stand N Rock’, a song from the anti-pipeline protests in the United States.
“I don’t hear anyone talking about the tens of thousands of jobs that are currently being created in the solar industry alone in Queensland. The more than 1,500 ongoing jobs that are being created, which is more than Adani’s mine. And these are jobs that are not going to destroy our environment and our economy. I don’t hear anyone talking about the 70,000 jobs in the Reef industry that will be damaged by Adani’s mine if it goes ahead. If we are really concerned about jobs, why aren’t we talking about these issues?”
~ Charlie Wood in The Sustainable Hour
Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 234 on 94.7 The Pulse:
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LISTENER SERVICE:
Content of this hour
Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
EDITORIAL NOTES:
The beautiful task of abolishing fossil fuels
“We want to turn Costa Rica into the world’s decarbonisation laboratory,” says Costa Rica’s president, Carlos Alvarado. Costa Rica is a country of 4.8 million people. A bit smaller than Victoria, but not much. Last year, 300 out of the the years 365 days, this country was powered 100 per cent on renewable energy.
Costa Rica also wants to become the world’s first country to totally eliminate single-use plastics.
» Eco Watch – 10 May 2018:
Costa Rica President Announces ‘Titanic and Beautiful Task’ of Abolishing Fossil Fuels
In California, Governor Jerry Brown has now signed a law putting California, the world’s fifth largest economy, on a path to generate 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable and zero-carbon sources by 2045.
Costa Rica and California are not alone. Iceland is already running on 100 per cent renewables. The Nordic countries and China are making technical progress much faster than predictions and forecasts had anticipated was possible. More and more frequently Denmark is powered 100 per cent by its own wind power, and at times there is so much electricity in the system that the wind turbines need to be stopped and electricity prices go negative.
The world is moving on – while the fossil fools in Australia increasingly are turning this country into the polluting black sheep that no one will want to do business with.
Australia has a government which claims it will “ensure that Australia has a strong economy that creates jobs and reduces cost of living pressures” but currently it is doing the complete opposite. It is hurting its own country’s economy on the long term. The prosperity of the business community is being sacrificed on the alter of short-sighted, unsustainable profits in the coal industry.
» The Guardian – 18 September 2018:
Australia’s rank on global development index hurt by climate change inaction
“Australia ranks 14 after New Zealand, with Scandinavian countries in top three spots.”
Climate killings
Two major storms – Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut – have taken precious lives. Typhoon Mangkhut hit the Philippines, where 59 died, most of them buried in landslides. Hurricane Florence struck the East Coast of the United States, killing 16 people.
Storms like these are likely to be increasingly powerful because of climate change.
These are climate killings, and our political leaders are directly responsible for them. Many of these deaths would have been prevented by appropriate carbon legislation years ago.
Over the three decades since scientists made it clear to everyone 30 years ago that we need to get off the fossil fuels to avoid a climate catastrophe, governments all over the world have deliberately delayed taking the necessary steps to stop the greenhouse gas pollution.
The time has come for language change. Our political leaders can increasingly be seen as the carbon murderers and climate criminals who are responsible for the tragedies.
Also, why do we politely say that “an Australian emits 250 times more carbon dioxide than a Tanzanian,” when the reality is that “An Australian pollutes our common atmosphere with 250 times more climate-wrecking greenhouse gasses than a Tanzanian does…”?
Our common home
Over the weekend, Pope Francis tweeted: “Let us deal with climate change through international cooperation: each person’s choices have repercussions on the life of everyone.”
Let us deal with climate change through international cooperation: each person’s choices have repercussions on the life of everyone.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) September 16, 2018
Pope Francis keeps lifting his voice for The Creation.
State election mobilisation in Victoria
While we’re living through extreme weather like never before, and the Great Barrier Reef will have died at our watch, in Victoria we are on the cusp of a road fork: the next election.
The Andrews government is going full force renewables, whereas the Guy opposition has promised us it will scrap the Renewable Energy Target and the rest of it, just like the federal government is busy doing it.
This makes 24 November an important election for climate action in our state. On that note, get involved! The #StopAdani movement is starting a national conversation about climate change and coal next month, and also watch this interview we did with Pat Simons recently:
… with more here:
A better world is possible
The craziness which is causing this climate emergency can only continue with people’s permission.
Each day, more and more people are withdrawing their permission.
On The Sustainable Hour on 94.7 The Pulse, we continue to come across people and businesses who are working for a better world and a circular economy, protecting the biosphere that sustains us.
Those people who are pushing the endless ‘growth mantra’ are less than one per cent of the population. Look at any true indicator of progress and it isn’t hard to find countless examples that our current systems just aren’t working – be that economic, health, wellbeing, food, energy, community, etc, etc.
The thing is that it doesn’t have to be like this – a way better way of interacting with our amazing planet and each other is possible if we want it to. Mass non-violent direct action and Greta-style civil disobedience is a very empowering experience and has a good track record hastening change.
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#STOPADANI:
Community conversations to #StopAdani
Nine-minute video recording with Charlie Wood in The Sustainable Hour, where she explains about the strategy of the #StopAdani movement
» See it / share it on YouTube
Be the difference
Be part of building an unstoppable movement to stop the Adani coal megamine from here in Geelong. There’s never been a more important time to organise in our communities to #StopAdani.
Two minute interview excerpt where Charlie Wood explains about the doorknocking event
Queenslanders overwhelmingly want you to put farmers and communities before #coal billionaires and cancel Adani's unlimited water licence @AnnastaciaMP #StopAdani https://t.co/qiNfa8eian
— Stop Adani (@stopadani) September 23, 2018
Hang on? Aren’t politicians not supposed to join a lobby group? Handily, peak bodies are not described as lobby groups per se – although it is hard to imagine what else it is that they think they might be doing.https://t.co/VoDcDsFqb5
— Galilee Blockade (@GalileeBlockade) September 24, 2018
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Wetland Carbon Workshop
The Wetland Carbon Workshop was organised by the Arthur Rylah Institue, the Society of Weland Scientists, the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Burt University and the Climate Drawdown Group Victoria.
We hope to be able to produce a special audio and video report about this important workshop at a later stage.
A video with the interviews with Jim Crosthwaite, Phil Papas and Max Finlayson will soon be posted here and on our Youtube channel.
Gene Blackley: Drawdown Australia
Gene Blackley gave a presentation at the Wetland Carbon Workshop in Melbourne. He describes himself as an ‘evangelist for reversing global warming’, working in the field of conscious business, regenerative, circular economy and system change.
» Gene Blackley’s Linkedin profile:
www.linkedin.com/in/geneblackley
Forests – the forgotten solution
“There’s a natural solution to climate change all around us, but we’re taking it for granted: Forests. Alec Baldwin and Dr. Jane Goodall explain why we can’t let forests be the forgotten solution. Created in partnership with Jane Goodall Institute.”
Put carbon where it belongs… back in the soil
“Soil scientists Dr Christine Jones and Elaine Ingham share farming and land management methods that will return carbon to the soil – and keep it there – for healthier crops, more resilient farms, and less extreme weather.”
The big picture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aZOhiiiolU
In this clip Johan Rockström talks about “the agricultural revolution” and the global transformation we need to see now.
“Our carbon pollution has reached saturation point … the results are widespread across our planet, setting new records for hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires, polar heat, coral bleaching, ocean acidification … we’ve reached 1°C global warming, and climate change is only going to get worse from here on out … bad news unless if we act, and this video goes a long way to describing all the ways our civilization is rapidly going green.”
~ Michael Rudnin
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Tonightly with Tom Ballard
Tom Ballard explains climate change – and does it spot on
» See or share via Youtube
[Language warning. Tom Ballard does use one rude word (a bit), but hey, you’re a grown up, right?]
Tom Ballard speaks well for the new generation of Australians who are entering high schools, universities and work places in these years – as well for as those who decided to drop out because of the way it is all going, saying like 15-year-old Greta Thunberg in Sweden: ‘What does it matter anyway whether I take an education’.
The time has come for a youth revolution, an energy revolution and a community rebellion.
With the next election coming up soon, Greta launched the concept of ‘school strike for the climate’ and has so far had very positive results from that idea. In Sweden, according to a new poll, the climate was put highest on voters’ agenda in the national election.
“Tom Ballard has just said what I’d like to have said on national TV about climate change and Australian politics.”
~ Philip Sutton, author, climate action strategist
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» New York Daily News – 14 September 2018:
‘IT LOOKED LIKE ARMAGEDDON’: Gas explosions rip through dozens of homes north of Boston; teen killed by falling chimney
In The Sustainable Hour today, we are talking about our country’s titanic and beautiful task of abolishing the use of fossil fuels in our economy – to make way for the use of clean and renewable energies.
It’s already happening – people are getting off gas in Victoria:
“Fossil-gas demand is falling. However, similarly to what happened a decade ago with electricity, this reversal of historical trends is not being widely reported. Instead politicians and industry lobbyists persist in calling for expanding gas supply and infrastructure.
Though the average home occupant wouldn’t know the phrase, what they are doing is called “economic fuel-switching”: moving from one energy source to another to keep pace with changing technologies and energy-source price differences.”
~ RenewEconomy
“The Productivity Commission and state treasuries spent years advocating the deregulation and privatisation of the electricity industry – and succeeded in creating a “free market” system governed by 5,000 pages of electricity market rules. Electricity is too dangerous and too important to be deregulated, and those pushing for deregulation always knew that. They didn’t want a free market; they simply wanted a market, one in which the government played a smaller role and the private sector made large profits selling an essential service for much higher prices than the government ever charged.”
~ Richard Denniss
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‘Beds Are Burning’: The time has come
“The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
To pay our shareThe time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belongs to them
Let’s give it backHow can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burningHow can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning”
~ Midnight Oil, 1987
‘Beds Are Burning’ was written more than 30 years ago as a protest song in support of giving native Australian lands back to the Pintupi, who were among the very last people to come in from the desert.
At the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Midnight Oil performed this song in front of a world audience of billions – including Prime Minister John Howard who has claimed this is his favourite Midnight Oil song.
Their album ‘Diesel and Dust’ was ranked the #1 Australian album of all time in the 2010-book ‘The 100 Best Australian Albums’.
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if there was a “climate criminals hall of shame” that stood as a monument to future generations, who would you nominate as an inductee?
— simon holmes à court (@simonahac) September 18, 2018
@TheRealPBarry exposes News Corp’s willful blindness, ignoring climate change concerns raised by Australia’s farmers. Repeating: Time for all News’ journalists/editors to demand their employer signs a charter of editorial independence. pic.twitter.com/7IXU5LsjQO
— Quentin Dempster (@QuentinDempster) September 17, 2018
Yes @leerhiannon News Corp informant has confirmed to me that @TurnbullMalcolm was removed by coal lobby in response to government’s intention to legislate/regulate Australia’s emissions reduction target. https://t.co/C5Uacjf7oY
— Quentin Dempster (@QuentinDempster) August 27, 2018
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
Politicians walked right by us, not even acknowledging our presence.
Anyway, today was amazing, we got so much positive feedback for initiating this and now Australia have joined the list of countries who support the global #climatestrike movement backing @gretathunberg on her mission to get our politicians to act! Let’s get the whole world onboard!!”
#FridaysForFuture #klimatstrejk #climatestrike
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“I don’t think being an informed individual blends well with the current ideological framework of the LNP, for so much of it is now governed by ‘beliefs’ (disturbingly similar to how religion operates) that are completely distinct from scientific and commercial fact. I no longer see it the product of ‘successful corporate lobbying’, but a special kind of arrogance combined with a loyal base, conservative media to support their claims, power and money.
It doesn’t seem to matter if what he says is true, the principle is to believe it to be true because he says it with such conviction and authority. 🙁
~ Tim St. Quentin
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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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#YouthRevolution? #StopAdani? #Drawdown? Yep: #TheTimeHasCome https://t.co/MhfCruurGz pic.twitter.com/rIbqufNW7U
— The Sustainable Hour (@SustainableHour) September 22, 2018
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