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The Sustainable Hour no 367: Redesigning the way climate movements mobilise
In the tunnel on 16 June 2021 we have two climate revolutionaries to guide and inspire us as humanity faces up to the climate emergency together:
Theo Kitchener is a movement designer and the founder of A Movement For Global System Change. She is a political theorist and change maker with a background in climate activism which she recently has synthesised with ideas from the healing and business worlds. Theo is also planning online courses around healing for activists, where participants will be learning how to overcome fears and the divides that separate us, rethinking how activist groups organise themselves in order to become more powerful. She is keen to promote confidence around our collective ability to unify and transform via strategic and functional means. You can find out more about Theo’s movement on Patreon and Facebook.
Dr Ruchina Talukdar recently received her PhD at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, on how activists from different cultures can work together effectively. She continues the theme that has run right through today’s program, i.e. the importance of accepting differences and not judging others who may appear to be different, but rather being able to put ourselves in their shoes and make an effort to understand. Ruchira Talukdar’s research compares energy politics and environmental mass movements in India and Australia. She has worked with Greenpeace in India an Australia, and with the Australian Conservation Foundation.
In-between the two interviews, we listen to a Facebook speech by American author Jason Yosef Shurka who has been featuring a lot on social media recently. Although he is talking about the Covid pandemic and people’s cognitive dissonance about it, we listen to his talk because what he is saying is just as relevant to the climate emergency. He refers to the “great divide” and the importance of overcoming that.
We also listen to Baba Brinkman makin’ waves and issue a language warning from the Juice Media crew as they once again use humour and many profanities to comment in their unique way about our Federal Government’s lack of real action on climate.
“Divided we fall, united we fly.”
~ Jason Yosef Shurka, American author, coach and speaker
In today’s show, Mik Aidt excitedly brings in news from the latest Australia Talks survey from ABC News and the encouraging increase in people’s attitudes as regards how much extra they were prepared to spend to prevent a climate catastrophe. You will see more details below on this page.
Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook begins in Cornwall, England, where the most unlikely saviour of the planet was revealed at the G7 leaders meeting. It turns out that the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a massive a stroke of luck for the environment. In fact, it might save the planet, Colin explains.
Then, the world’s 57 biggest investor funds that manage more than US$41 trillion in assets released a new joint statement to all world governments urging a global race-to-the-top on climate policy. They released a five-point plan for all future investors, in reality signalling an end to the coal industry.
Colin then zooms us to London where a new report by UCL and Trove Research found that the cost of offsetting corporate carbon emissions needs to increase ten-fold to drive meaningful climate action. Following this, he warns us of the incidence of “greenwashing” with specific reference to a corporation.
Finally for today’s Outlook, it’s over to Sri Lanka with the listing of the potential disastrous outcomes for the planet from the container ship that sank off Sri Lanka recently.
Once again we are left with much to think about from our guests. We are grateful for them coming on.
Until next week, we hope we have given you some ideas on how you can become the transformation you want to see in the world – ways in which YOU can be finding your role and making the difference.
“It is possible to change the world in a big way. If we can come together and unify then I believe we can transform things.”
~ Theo Kitchener, in The Sustainable Hour no 367
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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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How much more would you personally be willing to spend each year to help prevent climate change?
When the ABC asked this question to the Australians two years ago, 4 per cent said they’re ready to spend more than $2,000 dollars a year if it could help “prevent climate change”. That’s equivalent to one million Australians.
This year, out of the 60,000 Australians who have responded to the question so far, 9 per cent said they were ready to spend more than $2,000 dollars a year. That’s equivalent to 2.2 million Australians – more than twice as many as two years ago.
Considering that this year many Australians are experiencing serious economical constraints and limitations due to the Covid-19 crisis, it is likely that this 9 per cent figure would have been significantly higher if the pandemic hadn’t happened.
→ Learn more and take the ABC survey on www.australiatalks.abc.net.au
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A new movement design for global system change
“Hi, I’m Theo Kitchener. I’m starting a movement for global system change!
I believe that a world without poverty, oppression, war, runaway climate change, and with a lot of love, community, beauty, celebration, nature, responsibility and fulfilment for everyone is not only possible, but actually semi-likely if we play our cards right.
I’ve been an activist for a long time. I worked on various projects around environmentalism, community development, alternative economies, food security, civilisational collapse, system change, and self-actualisation. I’ve founded and co-founded nearly twenty projects and organisations, run hundreds of workshops, wrote articles/zines and created a viral animation.
Four years ago I took time out from activism after seeing one too many conflicts and other personal issues destroy amazing projects. I realised there was no way the left could create deep change in the world when it could barely even function well within itself.
Since then, I’ve been on an incredible mission to heal my own trauma and to learn how to do it so that I can help others do the same. This feels key to changing the world in any meaningful way. I’ve learnt a huge amount about healing and activism in my time and am bringing the two together in key ways.
I’ve spent quite a lot of time in the business world as well – from both the social entrepreneurship and co-operative perspective, and the more standard entrepreneurial and financial abundance perspectives. It’s taken me a long time to find a way to integrate all this with my activism, but doing that now feels really exciting and powerful.
I’ve developed a new movement design which I believe could make global system change towards utopia a reality. I’ve finally started sharing my ideas and folks are starting to collectively make it happen! I hope that you can join me on what should be a very exciting journey!
I’ve got a tonne of content in my head I need to start sharing, as well as heaps of projects I want to start, as well as wanting to support many others to start their own. I am currently on government benefits although this doesn’t cover my living expenses and I’ve already put a lot of my own money into supporting myself whilst working on all of this. Whatever funds I can raise through Patreon will cover me being able to support my work, or the work of the movement.
I would greatly appreciate your support, and I hope you’ll be grateful later on once we’ve changed the world that you did!”
~ Theo Kitchener
→ www.patreon.com/theokitchener
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→ ABC News – 15 June 2021:
Why the next five years are an opportunity to buy us time to solve climate change
“In Australia we’ve been talking about climate change for over a century …”
→ The Sydney Morning Herald – 16 June 2021:
Voters want Australia to set a net zero 2050 emissions target, but no carbon tax
“A majority of Australians, including Coalition voters, want the federal government to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 but do not want a carbon price as part of the plan, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison holds out against renewed global calls to set the target.”
Coalition voters are among those who back the goal, with a slim majority of 52 per cent in favour and only 12 per cent against, despite the government’s internal fight over whether to do more to counter climate change.
→ The Guardian – 16 June 2021:
Australian resources minister attacks ‘green activists’ for trying to ‘cripple’ fossil fuel companies
“Keith Pitt urges oil and gas producers to fight back against groups such as Greenpeace by quantifying the sector’s contribution to the economy.”
Australia’s resources minister, Keith Pitt, is urging oil and gas producers to turn the “spotlight” on environmental groups campaigning against an expansion of the fossil fuel industry on climate change grounds. Pitt will use a speech to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in Perth today to rail against “activism” against the climate damage caused by fossil fuels.
→ Yahoo News UK – 16 June 2021:
More than a million people died in one year due to fossil fuels, with half due to coal
“More than a million people died worldwide due to burning fossil fuels in 2017, with half the deaths caused by coal, a study has found.”
Researchers from around the world analysed the health effects of air pollution, and where it was coming from, in 200 countries. They found that pollution from cars and industry is only part of the problem as PM2.5 – tiny particles that can go into people’s lungs – can make people unwell if they cook every night on a stove.
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→ Bloomberg – 10 June 2021:
CO2 Levels Hit Record High
“CO2 levels appear to be the highest in as long as 4.5 million years, as the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases drives dangerous heating around the world.”
“The cost of breaching 1.5˚C warming limit will far exceed costs of achieving it”
→ Phys.org – 14 June 2021:
Scientists warn G7 that cost of breaching 1.5˚C warming limit will far exceed costs of achieving it
“A group of world-leading climate scientists are calling on global leaders to factor in the economic, environmental and humanitarian costs of failing to keep global warming below 1.5˚C this century, in a move led by experts from UCL, the University of Exeter and the ICCCAD.” By Jane Bolger, University College London
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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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