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The Sustainable Hour no. 427 | Podcast notes
How do we create the kind of social change, or even social revolution, which is needed in a climate emergency? We talk about this with our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 31 August 2022: climate activist and sociologist Jenn Sinclair, psycho-therapist Andrew Gaines and writer, musician and activist Morgan Heenan.
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Jenn Sinclair worked in the university sector as a researcher, educator, and diversity and inclusion manager until 2010. We learn of her involvement with both Extinction Rebellion, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Victorian Forest Alliance.
Jenn is involved in her local ACF Community Group who are putting on a zoom webinar featuring Victorian native forest specialist Professor Lindenmeyer next Tuesday night on 6 September 2022, ‘Saving our native forests in Victoria’. You can find out more about this event and register here.
While chatting with Jenn, the discussion turns to looking at techniques used by the climate activist group Just Stop Oil in England. You can find more about this campaign here: www.juststopoil.org
Jenn also refers to the importance of preserving our mountain forests which grow just a couple of hours’ drive from Melbourne. Here is an article about the importance of our mountain ash forests: Why these towering guardians of Melbournes water supply are at risk.
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Following Jenn, we have psycho-therapist Andrew Gaines whose catch-cry is “Together we can amplify our effectiveness!” and his campaign is called The League of Evolutionary Catalysts. Andrew has started a network called Inspiring Transition – which is all about “catalysing mass commitment to transformational change.”
Andrew feels that many people accept the reality of climate change, and astute thinkers write insightfully about our larger existential emergency and social dysfunction. Members of the League of Evolutionary Catalysts do more. They commit to actively contributing to the evolution of a life-affirming culture – a culture that cares for people and the planet.
Becoming a member of the League has three stages:
• Reading three longform articles
• Doing a practice run with two primary communication tools
• Having a Review Conversation with another member of the League
They are not developing an ideology. Just the opposite. They help people think better. Specifically, they help people move from silo thinking to systems thinking, and come to terms with the reality of our ecological emergencies. Their workshops introduce people to tools they can use to resolve their own emotional triggers.
The tree articles, which are central to their training, are:
• Catalysing mass commitment to transformational change
• Introducing a new paradigm for social change
• Becoming an Evolutionary Catalyst
The primary communication tools are:
• The beer coasters model of Major Drivers of CO2 Emissions
• Inspiring Transition slide deck
Once you become a member of the League, everyone is simply colleagues. Nobody directs what anybody else does.
If you’d like to participate in the workshop which Andrew runs in Melbourne on 17 September 2022, you can contact him on andrew.gaines@InspiringTransition.net and read more here or further down on this page.
Andrew speaks on Introducing a new paradigm for social change at a Canadian Association for the Club of Rome webinar on Wednesday 31 August 7 PM New York time, (which is Thursday morning in Australia) at this Zoom address, passcode: 979273
Find out more about the Inspiring Transition on Andrew’s website www.InspiringTransition.net
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Morgan Heenan is a writer, musician and activist. He is now also the editor of a new magazine, Dissolution, which publishes critical thought around ecology and politics.
Morgan’s music and writing is centred on social-ecological wellbeing and the cultural and political change needed to get there.
You can find out more about Dissolution and his other work on www.dissolution.one – and connect further on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
We play one of his rap songs, ‘Red Zone’. It can be found on bandcamp.com: Red Zone, by Incendiaries
To find out more about Morgan’s music, go here: linktr.ee/incendiaries
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We start off today with Mik Aidt calling out our journalists for not telling the truth about the true nature of the horrors that are being unleashed all over the world by unprecedented extreme weather events, especially in Pakistan right now. They are not “natural disasters”, as we hear all the time in the news – they are disasters caused by our irresponsible fossil fuel consumption and agricultural practices.
Mik rails against our federal minister for resources Madeleine King who recently said: “Gas enables greater use of renewables domestically by providing energy security.” He adds weight to this nonsense by referring to a recent article in The Conversation, titled ‘Opening 10 new oil and gas sites is a win for fossil fuel companies – but a staggering loss for the rest of Australia’.
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Following Mik’s graphic introduction, Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook begins with the current crop of climate change related disasters around the world.
The present epicentre is Pakistan, where the heaviest monsoon rains in that country’s history has seen mudslides and flooding causing widespread destruction with more than 1,000 people dead and 33 million people displaced. That’s the population of Australia and New Zealand combined. With another Melbourne added. All homeless and displaced.
Then to China where they have a lethal mix of heatwaves and drought and the numbers are worse. After more than 70 days of drought, hydro-power cuts and crop and livestock losses, there are regions where up to 70 per cent of the population has either died of drought, heat or starvation or simply left to become internal refugees.
In California the drought and wildfires continue, Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is experiencing the worst fire season ever and heatwaves and fires continue across southern Europe and north Africa. And don’t think the just because you don’t hear about the rest of Africa in the news, that they are not experiencing extreme weather. Seven of the 10 countries that are deemed by the UN to be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change are in Africa. Top of the list is Mozambique, in 1st place, Malawi is 3rd and Ghana and Madagascar are joint 8th.
And while we’re getting the bad news out of the way, the Adani coal mine in Carmichael, Queensland announced its financial statement that showed it had sold $33.5 million dollars of coal up until 31 March this year, having begun shipping in January. It announced plans to ramp up production to 10 million tons per year. Meanwhile the next wave of campaigning by Stop Adani is about to happen.
And just to finish a woeful week, our favourite climate-neutral football team, Forest Green Rovers, lost three times in the last week. They lost 1-3 at home to Plymouth Argyle, then in a midweek cup game they lost 0-3 to Brighton then last weekend they travelled to Sheffield Wednesday where they lost 5-0. It’s fair to say that Forest Green Rovers have had a baptism of fire in their new league, having won promotion as champions last year. Currently they’re at 22nd spot in England’s football league one, which has 24 teams.
Now for the good news, starting with France where scientists have built a new version on an old concept. The Wisamo project is a shortened form of ‘Wing Sailing Mobility’. They’ve built a new merchant sailing ship called the MN Pelican that will make twice weekly trips between Spain and Britain using available wind power. It doesn’t use conventional sails, it uses a single 100 square meter inflatable wing that can be manoeuvred so that it catches every breath of breeze. It’s developed by two Swiss scientists working with tyre manufacturer Michelin, and in full flight, it does look a bit like the Michelin Man. The ship has a motor for manoeuvring in and out of port, but according to Michelin, it has the potential to cut maritime fuel use by at least 20 per cent – and maritime emissions are 3 per cent of global totals and rising.
And finally a new report from Bloomberg International has been taking a close look at our nation, Australia, and has come up with the projection that we have the future of green energy within our grasp. the report says, ‘Few countries in the world can make such an outsize difference to climate change relative to their population. Australia’s addiction to coal and fossil fuels, both at home and for exports, has made it the largest carbon emitter per capita in the developed world. Yet by one estimate, the vast sunbaked continent could generate 5,000 exajoules of green energy — more than eight times current global demand. Even by more conservative assessments, Australia could power the world.’
“We’re at a turning point,” said Will Symons, who is Asia-Pacific climate and sustainability leader for Deloitte. “The challenge for us is to move at pace and move at scale, and that’s going to require new collaborations. Speed is everything.” For companies including Elon Musk’s Tesla, oil giant BP and a host of Japanese conglomerates, Australia provides more than an opportunity to make a dent in global emissions. As well as a potential source of green energy, it offers a unique platform to develop, test and build technologies thanks to the nation’s climate, minerals and ready-made infrastructure. All we’ve got to do is get over our financial addiction to fossil fuels and grasp the opportunities of the future.
And that positive note ends Colin’s round-up for the week.
“Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen. We have everything that we need to reduce carbon emissions, everything but political will. But in America, the will to act is a renewable resource.”
~ Al Gore in ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, 2006
Some insight from 16 years ago – it’s even more relevant today. What a great pity we didn’t listen to Al Gore then. Just think how many people have died since. How much destruction would have been avoided if real actions on climate were taken in 2006. We can’t change that now, but we sure can learn the lessons since then and incorporate them in the climate revolution that we actively promote each week this podcast. We’ll be back with more next week. Be the difference.
“It’s really important that we do have as many different cultural expressions of the climate reality and what we are facing as possible. This type of music and message definitely has a place because it does alert people and they may become more engaged, more interested through the culture.”
~ Jenn Sinclair, climate and forestry activist with Extinction Rebellion and the Australian Conservation Foundation
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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 disrespectful and unfair is that?
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Introducing a new paradigm for social change
Workshop with Andrew Gaines FRSA
Largely unnoticed, but huge, the past 50 years have seen the emergence of disciplines that dramatically improve people’s mental and emotional functioning.
This workshop will introduce several of them, and show how you can apply them to catalysing healthy social change. It will also show how we can align to go beyond our thought bubbles, and create a new kind of social change movement. Inspiring Transition is the support platform.
This workshop will draw on techniques from Tai Chi, energy psychology, creativity training, and the Feldenkrais method of body awareness. It will be highly experiential and engaging – even fun!
The techniques you learn here can have profoundly positive effects on your own functioning. However, they are also teachable. They can be easily introduced to other people.
Introducing a new paradigm for social change
Saturday
17 September
9:15 to 4:45
Abbotsford Convent
Abbotsford, Victoria$105 (negotiable)
Includes a Kitchen Table Conversations Kit
| New Paradigm webinar link “Last week I gave a webinar for the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome on Introducing a new paradigm for social change. I combine Donella Meadows’ insight into paradigms with insights from Moshe Feldenkrais about improving brain functioning. Beyond theory, there are straightforward applications that people can use with minimal training. Kitchen Table Conversations is one of them. I sometimes say that, Greta Thunberg will have reason to hope when she sees that mainstream society is committed to turning things around. So at a metalevel the new paradigm is about groups aligning to inspire thoughtful mainstream commitment to evolving a life-affirming culture. Aligned to the common purpose of affecting mainstream consciousness, the millions of groups that care about environmental and social well-being can become orders of magnitude more influential. Or so I suppose. Let’s put it to the test! The presentation part took about 30 minutes. I went over the ideas quite quickly. The follow-up discussion was really useful; it helped the concepts come alive. Smiles, Andrew Andrew Gaines Inspiring Transition |
Move Beyond Coal – launch event
| Join us on September 28th for the Melbourne launch of Move Beyond Coal – the movement to solve Australia’s biggest contribution to the climate crisis. Many of us have celebrated from a distance this year as Australian voters took steps to address your nation’s emissions; just as America’s Congress finally passed serious climate legislation. But here’s the thing: Australia’s domestic emissions are the least of the problem. I’ve stood on the docks at Newcastle and seen the black mountains of coal rising on every side: it’s the coal that Australia mines and exports that does far more damage to the climate than all the cars and cookers in the garages and kitchens of Australians. You export more coal than any nation on the earth. They don’t call it ‘global warming’ for nothing. If we’re serious about slowing down the climate crisis, we’ve got to keep fossil fuel in the ground—and that’s why the Move Beyond Coal movement that is launching in just a few weeks is so important. After all, Australia has decided to reduce emissions domestically, so it shouldn’t simply export the problem to the rest of the world instead. Will you be part of the solution to Australia’s biggest contribution to the climate crisis? Click here to join the Melbourne launch of Move Beyond Coal. Those of us in the world’s richest countries have pumped most of the carbon into the atmosphere, and so we have to take the lead in reining it back. This is a responsibility, but it’s also a privilege to get to play an outsized role at a crucial moment in history. I hope you’ll join me in supporting Move Beyond Coal—it’s a movement for the future, a movement that unites people around the world, a movement that repairs damage and offers hope. Thank you for being a part of it! In solidarity, Bill McKibben, author, activist, co-founder of 350.org and Third Act  |
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Election – independents
Climate movement will continue to fail as long as activists blame Big Oil for the energy they demand and do nothing to reduce their consumption. During previous World Wars, our ancestors made sacrifices, for the greater good. That doesn’t work with self-serving societies.
~ Jake Reyna
At the end of the day, this is the only graph that matters.
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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 running petitions where we encourage you to add your name
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Live-streaming
The Sustainable Hour is streamed live on the Internet and broadcasted on FM airwaves in the Geelong region every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time).
» 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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