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The Sustainable Hour no 371
[16:07] In The Tunnel today, our first guest is the founder of Mandalay Technologies, Simon Kalinowski. Simon’s company develops digital management software to help people who deal with waste to work more efficiently. He starts off by commenting on how we in Australia are going to miss out on the e-vehicle revolution. He then proceeds to philosophise about the important things in life and what is needed to get us to where we need to be to face up to the climate emergency. He also opines on burning waste to energy, how we, as a society, need to change our attitude to “waste” and the problems we have with plastics. You can find out more about Mandalay Technologies at www.mandalaytech.com.au.
“I very much subscribe to the view that I need to do more myself, and let that example and energy be a big part of my advocacy of change.”
~ Simon Kalinowski, CEO, Mandalay Technologies
[25:40] Mik Aidt introduces Simon to a poster he is working on together with a group of Danish climate activists – it contains a list of seven things that we as citizens can do to help us face up to the climate emergency. We’ve posted the draft version of it on the podcast webpage below. The project will be launched in October 2021, and will deliver a series of posters which outline how different groups and sectors in society can find their role in the collective effort to decarbonise all our activities and products.
“To me a lot of the bad decisions and the bad practices that people make are because they have lost connection with themselves or with their loved ones, family and friends, because if you really do have that human connection, you definitely value things differently. The issue for me right now is that our values are out of wack.”
~ Simon Kalinowski, CEO, Mandalay Technologies
[37:02] Following Simon we welcome Noreen Nicholson, who is special events co-ordinator for Geelong Sustainability. Noreen very enthusiastically tells us about their latest project. Their research had shown them that apart from energy consumption, the greatest emissions in Geelong comes from petrol driven cars, so they looked around for ways of addressing that. This led them to the Good Car Company and the idea of organising a bulk-buy e-vehicle project with them. You can find out more about this at www.goodcar.co/geelong.
[02:34] Colin Mockett‘s Global Roundup begins on the west coast of America where their months-long drought coupled with record temperatures has resulted in the inevitable wild fires. There are more than a dozen raging unchecked, the largest Beckworth Complex fire in California involves 1,200 firefighters and is still out of control.
Staying in the United States, John Kerry, who is Special Presidential Envoy for Climate from the U.S. Department of State, was quoted saying that “the world’s move to climate change policies represents the greatest transition in our economy since the industrial revolution.” But he also urged nations to do more, pointing out that even with the renewed commitments from the Biden Climate Meeting in Cornwall, the efforts are not enough to keep global warming under 1.5°C degrees.
We then zoom to Europe where figures were recently released showing that electric vehicles are at present being driven by 10 per cent of residents. The country with the highest intake is Norway, with 75 per cent of all new cars sold being electric. The really interesting point here is the stockpile of EVs for sale: 1.7 million in the United States, 700,000 in Germany, 434,000 in United Kingdom. Those figures also showed the New Zealand, with its 5 million population, has more EVs than Australia, which has 26 million people.
Then to The Vatican City where a young climate activist, Molly Burhans, has been appointed to stocktake and rationalise the Catholic Church’s assets in order to better use them for carbon reduction.
In the UK, an independent body with United Nations backing has issued a report emphasising the ‘golden opportunities’ that decarbonising their economy bring. It’s urging the speeding up of renewable energy generation coupled with massively scaling up the number of new electric vehicles.
[09:08] We round off Colin’s Global Outlook with an excerpt from a speech which John Kerry gave at Britain’s 2021 Climate Innovation Forum, arguing that the world needs to be in a war-like readiness to deal with the quickly unfolding climate crisis. “Greenhouse gasses are pollution,” he said, “and there was a time when we cared more about pollution than we seem to care about it now, and we did more about it with a principle called ‘Polluter Pays’. That was a principle that helped us clean the air, clean our skys and do better than we were doing. Now we are going the other way – and that makes people sick. We see 8.7 million people die each year just from the pollution from coal.”
At [13:55] we introduce listeners to a new corporate climate initiative which aspires to ‘Fix the Future Faster’. It is called #WorkForClimate and you can read more about it at www.workforclimate.org
We hope you all take much from this hour, as much as we take from producing it and listening to our guests, who week after week are working on solutions to the climate emergency we face. Till next week, we urge you to find your role in the climate emergency, explore and invest in your own special way to drive the climate revolution forward by making and being the difference.
“There is not enough focus on the true cost of our consumption. We are one of the highest per-capita producers of waste in the world, our people, and that is a really poor indictment if we care about our environment and what we do. If you don’t consume it, then you don’t have to worry about the recycling of it or the reuse of it, because you are not consuming it in the first place.”
~ Simon Kalinowski, CEO, Mandalay Technologies
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“What sort of government would resist its duty to protect children, in preference for climate-wrecking polluters?”
~ Professor Terry Hughes, scientist
In an embarrassing (and not at all surprising move), the Morrison Government has announced its intention to continue to spend taxpayer money fighting for the duty to NOT care about Australian Children.
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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Geelong’s first 100%
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#AllForClimate:
Posters about how each of us have a role to play
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“Affordable” + “Electric Car” are words we have not been able to put together before. We are proud to be able to deliver a range of affordable electric vehicles to kickstart the decarbonisation of transport in Geelong.
~ The Good Car Company
Sharing your electric car with your neighbours or friends
VEHICLE SHARING AGREEMENT – a template
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“The migration to electric batteries, electric power and electric powered vehicles – this will be bigger than the industrial revolution. And Australia has all these resources, and we are completely ignorant to the opportunity. Or, the governments are – at least to the vast majority.”
~ Simon Kalinowski, CEO, Mandalay Technologies
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Electric vehicles in the EU
Carbon emissions from new vehicles in EU: Exact figures are still under discussion, but Brussels is now expected to seek a 60 percent CO2 reduction by 2030 and a 100 percent reduction just five years later in 2035.
“We are open to even higher CO2 reduction targets in 2030,” said Oliver Zipse, president of the carmakers’ association ACEA and chief executive of BMW.
Volkswagen, which represents one sale in four on the continent, has followed US champion Tesla in backing an all-electric future. “Volkswagen was forced to go early into electric vehicles because of Dieselgate, to improve their image. they have made huge investments and now they have got the products ready to meet CO2 legislation.
“They are in a perfect position to gain market share, and they will be happy to see others go to the wall.”
Volkswagen already plans to stop selling vehicle with internal combustion engines between 2033 and 2035.
“In general a car remains on the road for 15 years. If we want transport to be carbon free by 2050, we need the last combustion-driven car to be sold by 2035 at the latest,” said Diane Strauss, of pressure group Transport and Environment.
→ Arab News / AFP – 8 July 2021:
EU prepares to send petrol cars to the scrap heap
→ The Telegraph – 13 July 2021:
The 10 best electric cars to buy in 2021
“Ahead of a ban on fossil-fuelled cars by 2030, here’s the pick of the EVs you can buy now in terms of range, efficiency and desirability.”
→ Climate Action – 26 July 2021:
Mercedes-Benz announces plans to go all electric
“By the end of the decade, Mercedes-Benz has announced plans to go all electric, where market conditions allow.”
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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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