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Welcome to our 349th Sustainable Hour.
We start today’s show with a brief clip from Sir David King, a former English Chief Scientist. The clip was taken from the National Climate Emergency Summit’s first webinar on the science of our climate emergency as part of the Sustainable Living Festival. It reinforces the strong message about how dire the situation we face is and how little time we have to address it:
“We have to move rapidly. What we do over the next two-three years, I believe, is going to determine the future of humanity.”
In The Tunnel on 10 February 2021 we have five guests:
[07:25] Bryony Edwards from Council & Community for the Climate Emergency, CACE. We learn from Bryony that although around 90 councils in Australia have declared a climate emergency so far, none have developed a serious council-wide climate emergency plan. To this end they have developed resources to guide councils to develop these plans as well to guide and support residents and ratepayers to lobby for such plans.
[21:41] Dr Jim Crosthwaite, a friend of the show and an economist, tells about his research into gas in response to the Morrison government’s ill fated ‘gas-led recovery’ plan. Jim recommends listening to the Boyer Lectures where fossil fuel tycoon Twiggy Forrest outlines what he sees as the future of energy in Australia. Jim then proceeds to explain why he disagrees on both economic and environmental grounds.
[43:09] Sal Fisher is co-founder of GasFreeGeelong – a group formed to counter Viva refinery’s proposal for a gas hub in Corio Bay and to educate Geelong and district residents about the alternatives that will help us face up to the climate emergency we face. Sal outlines what this education process will involve, including two community events which are coming up soon.
[52:45] Out in the Australian landscape, our Roving Reporter Rusty is working on a series of Regenerative Hours. But he wants to call it something else – because he wants to talk about what he likes to call “Ecological Agriculture”. He has been discovering that there’s a lot more to Regenerative Agriculture than the regenerative element of it. In his first podcast in the series, he talks with Kim Deans, a regenerative farmer from Inverell. Kim introduces Rusty – and now us, who are listening – to the concept of Syntropic Farming, which is a climate-friendly farming practice developed by a Swiss farmer over some 30 years in a logged area of the Brazilian rain forest.
[1:01:20] Carly Dober is a psychologist and yoga instructor who works in schools. Carly tells us of the increasing number of students who have presented with concerns for their future. She found that yoga was really useful in helping her deal with stress, so, very generously, she has decided to offer her services once a month with online yoga classes called Yoga For Climate – each month she will give a different group the proceeds from these classes. They will be offered on the fourth Thursday of each month starting on 25 February 2021.
Today’s show is so jam-packed with guests that Colin Mockett [at 02:52] had to shorten his Global Outlook to just two items: A major international car maker has just signed a contract for all its aluminium to come from a solar powered aluminium smelter in the Middle East. At the time, this company announced a very ambitious carbon neutral target – a target that is decades ahead of what most governments are aiming for. Colin then zooms us to Scotland with news that 10 whiskey distilleries have committed to using renewable tidal energy to power their operations. We can see the marketing for that now – ‘Zero Carbon Scotch’.
That’s it for today folks – next week will be an extra special number 350 – yet another milestone for our show. You hope you will join us then as we keep developing our #ClimateRevolution, and as Bryony Edwards told us: We need to start doing everything we normally do differently. Be that difference.
#ClimateForAll #AllForClimate
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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 land. They nurtured it and thrived in often harsh conditions for millenia before they were invaded. Their land was then stolen from them – it wasn’t ceeded. It is becoming more and more obvious that, if we are to survive the climate emergency we are facing, we have much to learn from their land management practices.
Our battle for climate justice won’t be won until our First Nations brothers and sisters have their true justice. 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…
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore the climate emergency 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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Campaign to get climate emergency into four-year council plans
Message from the Climate Emergency Action Alliance:
Councils devising four-year council plans
Victorian councils are currently devising their four-year plans. Your councillor/s need to hear from you that climate emergency needs to be prioritised in the council plan. We commonly hear from councillors that they received many pleas for car parking but none about the climate emergency.
CACE campaign to get climate emergency into four-year plans
CACE (Council and community action in the climate emergency) has been campaigning to get climate emergency prioritised in all Victorian four-year plans.
- CACE has emailed every newly elected councillor with a checklist of ideas for how to prioritise climate in their council plan. Read the full email with materials for councils that have previously passed motions acknowledging the climate emergency.
- CACE is following up emails to councillors by running separate webinars for councillors and for community members who want their council to mobilise in the climate emergency. Follow this link for more information including webinar access to each session.
Emailing your councillors is you most important action you can take this February
Google your local councillor, find their email address and demand the following:
- That council declare a climate emergency if they have not already done so. You can check this list to see if your council has declared https://www.cedamia.org/global.
- Demand councils that have already declared put a prominent statement about the climate emergency and the council’s response on their home / front page of their website (just like they have probably done with COVID).
- Demand council enter a full emergency response just as they have done with their COVID response. This includes promotion of the issues to their community, significant budgets, and ambitious targets, CACE discusses exactly how council can undertake an emergency response here.
Demand council pick a range of projects to lead their response. Send your councillors to the Local Government Climate Emergency Toolkit developed by former Moreland Councillor, Dale Martin to guide their project selection.
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Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour
Events in Victoria
The following is a collation of Victorian climate change events, activities, seminars, exhibitions, meetings and protests. Most are free, many ask for RSVP (which lets the organising group know how many to expect), some ask for donations to cover expenses, and a few require registration and fees. This calendar is provided as a free service by volunteers of the Victorian Climate Action Network. Information is as accurate as possible, but changes may occur.
Petitions
→ List of petitions where you can add your name
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Live-streaming on pause
The Sustainable Hour is normally streamed live on the Internet every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time), but due to the corona lockdown, the radio station has been closed.
» To listen to the program on your computer or phone, click here – or go to www.947thepulse.com where you then click on ‘Listen Live’ on the right.
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Podcast archive
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