Community opens its doors to sustainable housing

Australian matters, Local Geelong matters

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An hour about Sustainable House Day Geelong, the Sun Bear Festival in Anglesea, and more

Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 10 October 2018 are two house owners who open their homes on Sunday 14 October: Kerri Erler from Teesdale, Stephen Williams from Manifold Heights, and energy assessment expert Dan Cowdell from Geelong Sustainability, who you can meet at Property #5 in Manifold Heights between 10am and 2pm on Geelong’s Sustainable House Day.


From 36:00 to 42:00 we talk with Katja Nedoluha, founder and festival director of the family wildlife Sun Bear Children’s Festival, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.

And before all of that, Mik runs a short quiz about a couple of ridiculous mistakes Australia’s new environment minister Melissa Price made on 9 October in an interview with ABC journalist Sabra Lane.

 

“Anybody could do this, and I feel it is part of my commitment to the environment and to sustainability to showcase to people that they could do it too.”
~ Kerri Erler, owner of Property #1 at Sustainable House Day Geelong 2018




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Walk to School campaign in October
“Geelong, let’s walk to school this October!”



 LISTENER SERVICE: 

Content of this hour

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

 #EDUCATIONAL #FESTIVAL: 

Sustainable House Day Geelong 2018

House #5
Location: Teesdale
Type: New build, 9 star, passive house
Owner: Kerri Erler

This newly completed, highly insulated, passive house has triple glazed windows, fire resistant materials, heat exchange system, bionic wood heater and paper rock bench tops. All water is treated and reused onsite on this beautiful 2.5 acre bush block filled with 300 year old red gum.

» Learn more:
www.geelongsustainability.org.au/shd/teesdale


. . .

Dan Cowdell: How to make your house energy efficient

Dan Cowdell is project coordinator for Geelong Sustainability’s renewable energy projects. You can meet Cowdell in person at Property #5 in Manifold Heights between 10am and 2pm on Sustainable House Day Geelong, 14 October 2018.

» Share this video on YouTube

» Learn how to Green It Yourself:
More info about the Sustainable House Day on www.geelongsustainability.org.au/shd

Media coverage

Geelong Advertiser article on page 25 – 13 October 2018

» Geelong Advertiser – 13 October 2018:
Greenest yards in the burbs open to public
“Over the past eight years, Goshen and Katrina Watts have transformed their typical suburban backyard into a highly productive garden oasis. With largely reclaimed materials, the permaculture experts have created an area full of purpose in Belmont. There’s a food forest, series of connected ponds, anti-aviary, permeable paved pathways, a rocket stove, wisteria covered pergola and an outdoor deck. Food scraps collected from local cafes are used to feed their chickens, and supplement their multiple composting systems.

People will be able to get a closer look at the permaculture garden at an open day tomorrow. It is one of 13 progressive properties across the city that will be open for Geelong Sustainable House Day. The annual event, which is organised by Geelong Sustainability for the council, is into its 10th year.”



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 #FESTIVAL: 

Sun Bear Children’s Festival

The family wildlife Sun Bear Children’s Festival is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. They have found an exciting new location that they hope will foster a deeper connection for the whole family to our local natural environment – the Anglesea Shark Park – located next to the river mouth and with access to the dunes and beach.

The activities are nature-based and community-focused. And to make the celebration even more special, the festival has added a Twilight Program the night before to kick off the festival with a special Indigenous Ceremony and nocturnal program.

Program:
• Saturday 13 October
5:30-7:00pm: Community Picnic
BYO picnic to gather in the spirit of the festival and in anticipation of the Twilight Ceremony
7:00-7:30pm: Twilight Ceremony
7:45-8:45pm: Spotlighting and Stargazing

• Sunday 14 October
10am-2pm: Wildlife and nature-focussed games, activities, talks & walks, young musicians and animal poetry on stage, kangaroo-whistle fitting etc.
2:30-3:00pm – Endangered Wildlife Parade

» Tickets on sale on www.eventbrite.com.au

» Festival Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/sunbearfestival

» Katja Nedoluha’s Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/katja.nedoluha



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 #Coalspeak from an “environment” minister:  

Science a matter of opinion

The United Nations has released this damning report on the desperate need to cut global emissions. The Australian COALition does not accept the science as that would be acknowledging that we have to say goodbye to coal – now.

On Monday, the world’s 91 leading scientists from 40 different countries told us exactly what we need to do to stop runaway climate change. And right at the top of their list is this: we have to leave the coal in the ground.

Coal is the most polluting, climate-wrecking fossil fuel we have – and Australia currently has a 40-billion-dollar-a-year industry that profits hugely from digging it up and exporting it to Asia.


Here’s what this “responsible” and so-called “environment minister” said on live radio in response to ABC journalist Sabra Lane’s comment that, “Credible scientists say that we are not on track” [to meet the Paris Agreement’s emissions targets]:

“Well — that could be their opinion but I’m telling you that I’m very comfortable with the policies we’ve got.”

Clearcut coalspeak á la Trump: The easy trick of simply stating that science is a matter of “opinion”. Easy! But is it “responsible” of the person in charge of Australia’s environment policies to state that science is a matter of opinion just because the science doesn’t fit her coal-financed, air polluting and climate disruptive agenda?

One of the IPCC’s recommended remedies – apart from investing $2.4 trillion in renewables every single year from now until 2035, which is seven times more than we invested in 2017 – is to eliminate coal by 2050. All of it.

Investments in natural gas and fracking should also be switched to renewables instead. Given the new data, the so-called “bridge fuel” has become a bridge to nowhere. More about the IPCC report below.

» The New Daily – 12 October 2018:
The Ferguson Report: Environment minister specialises in noxious emissions


Spot the difference

1. “I welcome the strong scientific analysis behind today’s IPCC report and its conclusions are stark and sober. As policymakers we need to work together to accelerate the low-carbon transition to minimise the costs and misery of a rapidly warming world.”
~ Claire Perry, minister for energy, United Kingdom

2. “Well — that could be their opinion but I’m telling you that I’m very comfortable with the policies we’ve got.”
~ Melissa Price, environment minister, Australia, in a radio interview on ABC Radio 9 October 2018

» The Guardian – 9 October 2018:
World leaders ‘have moral obligation to act’ after UN climate report
Even half degree of extra warming will affect hundreds of millions of people, decimate corals and intensify heat extremes, report shows

“Australia’s new environment minister has taken the astonishingly audacious move of contradicting a call by the world’s leading panel of climate experts to quickly abandon coal power. Melissa Price said the scientists were “drawing a very long bow” to say coal should be phased out by the year 2050.

“Coal does form a very important part of the Australian energy mix and we make no apology for the fact our focus at the moment is getting electricity prices down,” she told ABC Radio.”

» Source: TheNewDaily.com.au


“We’d need reductions of 6 to 9 percent. Every year, in every country, for half a century. We’d need to spread the world’s best climate practices globally — like electric cars in Norway, energy efficiency in California, land protection in Costa Rica, solar and wind power in China, vegetarianism in India, bicycle use in the Netherlands.

We’d face opposition the whole way. To have a prayer of 1.5 degrees Celsius, we would need to leave most of the remaining coal, oil and gas underground, compelling the Exxon Mobils and Saudi Aramcos to forgo anticipated revenues of over $33 trillion over the next 25 years.”

» NYtimes.com – 7 October 2018:
Stopping climate change is hopeless. Let’s do it.
“It begins with how we live our lives every moment of every day.”




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 #STOPADANI #DOORKNOCKING:  

Conversations in the community about coal and climate

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Engaging our community one doorknock at a time
To #StopAdani we have to speak up both individually and collectively, and on 6 October as well as in the coming weeks, lots of #StopAdani billboards are going up on private fences in Geelong.

Would you like to help? – Learn more about our #StopAdani Geelong group on

#StopAdani Geelong’s doorknock on 6 October


Citizen pressure

Last week, the world’s leading climate scientists meet in Korea to finalise a report about the consequences of 1.5°C global warming – a report which received 42,000 comments in the process, and which has been labelled a ‘moment of truth’ for our leaders. It was then published on Monday this week.



There really has never been a more important time to organise in our communities to stop the Adani coal mine and to take action on climate change.

From the UN General-Secretary to the Pope, from the Terminator and Leonardo diCaprio to 15-year-old climate-striking Greta in Sweden: Leaders who understand how our societies work all call for citizen pressure as the most urgent and important remedy in solving the climate crisis. 

That’s where you and I – and our networks – come into the picture.

There were almost 60 doorknocks organised for the National Doorknock to #StopAdani. 

To speak up and to open this conversation about the Adani coal mine and climate change – within the family, among friends and colleagues, as well as with strangers in East Geelong as they open their door – requires courage, yes. But if the task of creating citizen pressure to solve the climate crisis requires courage, so be it: We will step up and find that courage. We will support each other in how to find it.




 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



IPCC report: ‘Global Warming of 1.5°C’

“Summary: The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only 12 years to be kept to a maximum of 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown.”

» Download the report from United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:
‘Global Warming of 1.5°C’

“The report finds that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities. Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050. This means that any remaining emissions would need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air.

“Limiting warming to 1.5°C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes,” said Jim Skea, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III.

The first Special Report, on Global Warming of 1.5°C was considered by the Panel on 1-5 October 2018 in Incheon, Republic of Korea. It was launched at a press conference on 8 October.

The Special Report was developed under the joint scientific leadership of Working Groups I, II and III with support from WGI TSU. The IPCC is currently in its Sixth Assessment cycle. During this cycle, the Panel will produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report on national greenhouse gas inventories and the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).”

» Source: IPCC Press release (PDF)


 

“Several hundred million lives are at stake.”
~ Eric Holthaus, meteorologist


» EnviroLink – 8 October 2018:
Climate report: Scientists politely urge ‘act now, idiots’

» Grist – 9 October 2018:
About that climate report …
“Without heroic action, the world is on course to reach warming severe enough to destabilize key societal and planetary systems as soon as 2030.”

» The New Daily – 8 October 2018:
This one chart shows how terrifyingly urgent the climate situation is

» The Leap – October 2018:
Three takeaways from the IPCC’s new report

» ‘How to understand 1.5°C climate science’ (PDF)
Questions of the IPCC 1.5°C report

» Manchester | Kevin Anderson – 8 October 2018:
Response to the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report
“The IPCC report meticulously lays out how the serious climate impacts of 1.5°C of warming are still far less destructive than those for 2°C. Sadly, the IPCC then fails, again, to address the profound implications of reducing emissions in line with both 1.5 and 2°C. Dress it up however we may wish, climate change is ultimately a rationing issue.”


“This report gives policymakers and practitioners the information they need to make decisions that tackle climate change while considering local context and people’s needs. The next few years are probably the most important in our history.”
~ Debra Roberts, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II

» The Guardian – 8 October 2018:
IPCC climate change report calls for urgent action to phase out fossil fuels – as it happened
UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says coal-fired electricity must end by 2050 if we are to limit global warming rises to 1.5C

» The Guardian – 8 October 2018:
Full report: We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN

» The Guardian – 8 October 2018:
Overwhelmed by climate change? Here’s what you can do



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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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