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Our guest in The Sustainable Studio on 20 March 2019 is 19-year-old Alex Marshall from CACE Surf Coast & Geelong who is calling for proper council action on the climate emergency, and leading the charge on the Surf Coast to follow the lead of over 400 other councils around the world that have declared a climate emergency – five of those in Victoria, 15 in Australia.
We also talk over the phone with the officer at Darebin City Council whose job it is to get the practical stuff of a climate emergency sorted and making the Council’s decisions work for the community and the officers: Samantha Green from the municipality’s Environmental Education & Promotions Office.
We visit Maribyrnong Councillor Simon Crawford in the fifth Victorian council to declare a climate emergency. And we visit Darebin Councillor Trent McCarthy who has been a strong supporter of Darebins climate emergency initiatives since his climate emergency motion – the first of its kind in the world – was carried in 2016.
Sustainable People: Lene Foghsgaard takes to the street again – this time to join the students’ climate strike in Melbourne on 15 March where she walks together with thousands of climate-concerned and sustainable people demanding policy change.
World View: What is New Zealand doing about climate change? Colin Mockett takes a look at New Zealand’s leadership after its Darkest Day, and on the so-called “independent” report from fossil fuel industry consultant Brian Fisher whose research on the economic cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is deeply flawed.
“There is support for declaring a climate emergency, taking action. It is seen as serious and urgent by a majority of people.”
~ Common Cause Australia, network agency
Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 259 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
#CLIMATEEMERGENCY:
TRENT MCCARTHY
RenewEconomy – 8 March 2019:
Poll finds strong majority support for declaring a climate emergency
Sign petition
Support the campaign and sign the petition on
www.surfcoast.climateemergencydeclaration.org
www.geelong.climateemergencydeclaration.org
“The world is facing a climate emergency. Our country is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Government action and policy matters. Labor is not just ready to take action here; we are impatient to take action. We know that this is in the national interest, that this is in our children’s interest, and that this is in our grandchildren’s interest.”
~ Mark Butler, in a speech on 4 December 2018
LOCAL FIRST
Feature forum at the National Sustainable Living Fesival in Melbourne in February 2019 with some of the remarkable councillors who are at the forefront of the world’s first climate emergency mobilisation effort, acting locally and spreading globally.
“City governments around the world are on the move. In the space of just 12 months, a growing number of city councils are showing extraordinary leadership as the climate crisis escalates. Now spreading into an international movement that started in Australia, city councils are stepping forward as the first level of government to declare a climate emergency. In this extraordinary development, government officials are facing up to the true level of climate risk and are stridently developing climate emergency mobilisation plans and advocating to protect their citizens.”
FEATURED CITIES
Cheryl Davila – Berkeley (USA)
Eduardo Martinez – Richmond (USA)
Chris Krohn – Santa Cruz (USA)
Doina Cornell – Stroud (UK)
Carla Denyer – Bristol (UK)
Kim Le Cerf – Darebin (AUS)
Natalie Abboud – Moreland (AUS)
Belinda Coates – Ballarat (AUS)
Hosted by: Gay Alcorn, Melbourne Editor Guardian Australia
Impassioned request made City of Powell River declare a climate emergency
“We are the leaders of this community and everybody is looking at us to make a difference. I just can’t sit by anymore and do these piddly things that we’re doing. We know it’s going to be expensive; we know it’s going to take staff time to build these into our financial plans but we have to start putting money into reserves. We have to make plans so at the very least if we can do this we’re taking a step forward and we’re telling the community that this is an urgent matter and we are getting in front of it as best we can at this late date.”
~ Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman, City of Powell River
City of Powell River councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said she is losing sleep over climate change. At one point during her impassioned argument on the subject at the regular council meeting on 21 February 2019, she broke into tears over her desperation.
She requested that within 90 days, city staff prepare a report outlining the greatest threats to the city, both corporate and community, with respect to climate change impacts.
It includes: estimated sea level rise, wildfire threats, increased flooding events, potential contamination of the watershed and other immediate perceived threats; beginning discussions between the city, regional district and Tla’amin Nation for establishing an advisory committee for disaster and emergency response planning with the regional manager of emergency services taking the lead; establishing “Climate Action Plan 2020 and Beyond” for a carbon-neutral City of Powell River; beginning to track financial implications of climate change impacts not only in city asset management plans but in all city departments; and becoming carbon neutral in the city’s corporate operations from 2019 and beyond.
» Powell River Peak – 6 March 2019:
City of Powell River councillor makes impassioned call to address climate change
“Council decides on its definition for ‘emergency’ plan”
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Song: ‘Extinction or Rebellion’
By Kuki and the BardWe are facing an unprecedented global emergency
The Government has failed to protect us
To survive it’s going to take everything we’ve got
Like it or not, it’s time to rise up
Extinction or Rebellion, rise up, rise up people now
Rise up by the billion, shake this system down
Extinction or Rebellion, stand up for your nature
Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up
Shake this system down
We need to take action in this world
We need to take care of ourselves
This rebellion is fuelled by our love
Sisterhood, brotherhood, elders, young people
It’s time to rise up
Extinction or Rebellion, rise up, rise up, people now
Rise up by the billion, shake this system down
Extinction or Rebellion, stand up for your nature
Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up
Shake this system down
» www.kukiandthebard.bandcamp.com
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SOLAR COMMUNITY HUB – ELECTION PROMISE
This week, Labor made the announcement was that if elected they will fund a solar community hub – 10 in fact – in the G21 Region. This will enable renters to join the two million homes that currently have solar. The initiative is run in conjunction with BRACE.
At the meeting, Mark Butler agreed that, yes we are in a climate emergency but he would not say that the Labor Government would commit to declaring a climate emergency if elected. He explained that “Government is a bit more complicated than local councils” and that he didn’t know how a climate emergency being declared was even possible at a federal level.
» Mark Butler MP’s press release and Facebook post
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
Coal: “Reliable, affordable… and clean”
~ Headline in The Australian in 2019
“Last year, we took another lurching step toward planetary catastrophe. Demand for coal, oil, and natural gas hit new all-time highs in 2018, according to a worrying new report from the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization that compiles statistics on global energy use.”
~ Eric Holthaus
» Grist – 26 March 2019:
Coal, oil, and natural gas demand hits record high in 2018
“Our fates have always been linked. Now, they are more than ever. The failure of the planet’s wealthy to act is amputating not only the future but also the present-tense possibilities of many millions here among us.”
~ Ben Ehrenreich, author
» The Nation – 1 March 2019:
Climate Change Is Here—and It Looks Like Starvation
“But don’t expect to hear about it on the nightly news.”
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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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