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The Sustainable Hour no. 455 | Podcast notes
Our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 19 April 2023 are Tejopala Rawls from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, and Vonne Yang, who is founder of the circular economy slow fashion start-up InRo.
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[12:55] Tejopala Rawls from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, ARRCC, tells us all about what the organisation has achieved – the main recent event being a letter to the PM and other politicians signed by over 100 of our country’s faith leaders asking for a science based response to the climate crisis. He also tells us of their plans for the 2025 federal election with a particular reference to one of our Geelong electorate Corangamite.
→ For those wanting to know more about ARRCC, you can send an email to: info@arrcc.org or go to their website: www.arrcc.org
[30:55] Vonne Yang is founder of the circular economy slow fashion start-up called InRo – short for “In Rotation”. InRo recently won two awards at Moral Fairground’s annual awards. They won both the ‘Melbourne Climate Futures Climate’ Award as well as the overall winner of the ‘Early Pitch’ Competition. Their mission is to reduce fast fashion consumption, one of Australia’s biggest sources of landfill. They provide a guilt-free sustainable and accessible alternative to fast fashion by offering monthly curated rental subscription boxes with styling tips, and options for the conscious purchase of items at an accessible price. It is like getting access to a bigger, more exciting, eco-friendly shared wardrobe. End of life for all purchases are included for alterations, up-cycling or recycling.
→ For those wanting to know more about InRo, go to: www.inro.life and you can follow them on Instagram on www.instagram.com/inro.life
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[01:15] After a brief clip from Antonio Guterres and our Acknowledgement of Country, Mik Aidt gives us a lesson in maths – maths coming out of a report from scientists from universities of California, Princeton, Washington and the American EPA who published a study in Nature in September last year where they estimated that every additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere is costing society US$185, equivalent to AUS$276, as a result of extreme weather events, the harms to human health, decreased agricultural productivity, damages from natural disasters and other effects on the economy. This report can be found at: www.nature.com
The lesson continues with Mik putting the social cost – the cost of the damage we cause by using fossil fuels to power our activities – in perspective. If AUS$276 is the cost of the damage that is caused by putting 1.000 kilos of carbon into the atmosphere, then you can multiply or divide this number by the emissions that you cause by your firm, for instance, or as an individual, and you then know the economic damage that is caused by these emissions.
To emphasise this true cost, Mik uses the figures they came up with to show the real cost of a number of everyday activities we undertake. For instance, on average, 20 minutes of driving in a normal petrol car emits 1 kilo of CO2, causing 28 cent of damage to society.
We learn how much damage the average Australian causes with our 15 tonnes of emissions each year. A family household is easily responsible for some $20,000 of damage to society every year. Finally we learn how much damage recently approved fossil fuel projects will cause if they go ahead. Mind boggling figures in the billions of dollars.
The American scientists have done the work – we now know there is a much higher cost, a social cost, of burning fossil fuels than we are aware of. We hear on the news that there’s a multi-billion dollar price tag on all the climate devastation we are beginning to see – the destruction and the repairs that follow after record-breaking cyclones, floods and bushfires – but the media fails to explain to us that this is directly linked to our damaging burning of gas, petrol, oil and coal.
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[28:04] The songs we play are firstly ‘Climate Change ICJ Theme Song’ which highlights Vanuatu’s initiative to ask the International Court of Justice to deliver an Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States under international law to prevent significant harm to human rights and the environment. It’s a direct call to the International Court of Justice. Will they listen?
[47:25] Lateron, we listen to Sonny Henry and Alan Weiner‘s ‘(You’ve Got to Change Your) Oily Ways’, and we end the Hour with Missy Higgins‘ ‘The Difference’ along with a quote from Greta Thunberg speaking at the UN Climate Summit in Poland in 2018.
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[05:33] Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook this week begins again with the world’s two largest emitters of CO2 into the atmosphere, the United States and China. It’s a story that begins in the Middle East, where a new report warned the oil-rich nations that the biggest threat that Saudi Arabia and the OPEC oil cartel has comes not from net zero or from green deals in the West, but from China.
That’s because Chinese sales of petrol and diesel cars fell 20 per cent in February, compared to last year. Sales of electric vehicles are rising explosively there. It reached a record 32 per cent of the market for standard passenger cars. At the current pace, EV sales in China will hit 8 million this year, helped by the nation’s super-fast roll-out of battery-swapping stations. Rather than charging your own car, you can do an instant swap. No need to wait, and no need for charge points everywhere. This also shows how woefully far behind Australia is with the rest of the world.
Lord Turner, who is chairman of the global Energy Transitions Commission, was quoted in the report, predicting that “China’s demand for oil is suddenly going to start falling.” He noted that half of China’s total car fleet could be electric by 2030. If you add up the numbers, that would subtract several million barrels of oil a day, mightily reducing Co2 emissions and sounding the death knell for oil producers. The boost in China’s EV sales was despite their government removing the subsidies it paid to car companies. This, in turn, was due to the car companies cutting their prices. China’s best selling EV is the BYD Song Plus, which retails for about $41,000. Number two is the smaller Wuling Mini which starts at around $8,000.
China’s green leap forward is not just a nightmare for big oil. It is compelling America and Europe to respond in kind, causing an acceleration in the race for clean-technology.
And that leads to the news from America. Last Wednesday, before he flew to Ireland, the Biden administration announced they were going to introduce sweeping changes to the US fuel efficiency standards. These are aimed at cutting the country’s emissions by 40 per cent by the end of the decade. The scheme is designed to boost the sales of electric vehicles by 1000 per cent so that they account for 67 per cent of new passenger cars sold in the US by 2032. Although they didn’t say it, this was almost certainly in response to China’s latest figures. And it does have repercussions here in Australia. But first the figures. Last year in the US, EVs only captured 6 per cent of America’s new car sales.
So the new laws, which impose stricter emissions standards on new truck sales will force the car companies to switch to electric. President Biden also pledged to spend big money to encourage the take-up of EVs, including $15 billion for charging stations and $7 billion to support battery manufacturing, as well as billions of dollars in grants. The worry for Australia is that if we don’t follow suit with stricter emission standards of our own, then Australia will become the dumping ground for high-emission petrol-guzzling cars that global car companies want to unload quickly.
Now back to China, where their scientists are moving into position to command the next big innovation in rechargeable batteries. In central China’s Changsha University, thousands of chemists and engineers are looking to shape the future of batteries around Sodium instead of Lithium.
The University has been churning out the graduates who are advancing the technology, very much like Stanford University moulded the careers of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who pioneered microchips in the US in the 1980s. Now, in the Xiang River province, vast factories mix minerals into highly processed compounds that make rechargeable batteries better and cheaper, holding their charge longer.
China currently dominates the chemical refining and production of lithium batteries which has powered the rise of mobile phones and other consumer electronics.
Now research from Changsha is positioning China to command the next big move: that is replacing lithium with sodium, a far cheaper and more abundant material. Sodium, found all over the world as part of salt, sells for 1 per cent to 3 per cent of the price of lithium and is chemically very similar. It does have several advantages in holding its charge longer and also doesn’t seem to be affected by ultra-low temperatures. We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.
But now, the news is not good for the world’s greenest sports club, Forest Green Rovers, who played Barnsley at the weekend, and lost 5-1. With only four games to go, they are now certain of being relegated to Division 2. And there’s no better news from the Forest Green Rovers Women’s team which was coming off the back of two 9-0 victories played Poole Town Ladies in the FA Cup They scored four goals, but unfortunately Poole scored five, so the vegan greens are out of this year’s cup challenge.
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That’s us for another week. We hope this week’s duo of solution seekers gives you inspiration and ideas for what you can do to become an active member of the climate revolution, if you aren’t involved already. The Sustainable Hour will be back next week with more climate-concerned guests. Until then, as Missy Higgins’ grandmother said: Be the difference.
“I think this movement during the climate crisis can be really fun while you are being rebellious. I’ve been attending Melbourne Fashion Week, Melbourne Fashion Festival, and I’ve been asked to speak on a panel on Sustainable Fashion – and I was wearing op-shop clothes literally worth $5.”
~ Vonne Yang, founder of the slow fashion startup company InRo
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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 millennia before they were invaded. Their land was then stolen from them – it wasn’t ceded. 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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More on fashion
→ The New Daily – 22 April 2023:
‘No new clothes for a year’: Teen pledges to shun fast fashion for our planet’s sake
“Even with formals, sixteenth birthdays and weddings coming up this year, 15-year-old Eliza Wood won’t be buying anything brand new this year. Instead, she intends on making her own clothes, buying secondhand and renting outfits for special occasions.”
Getting involved with faith and fashion - Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no. 455 are Tejopala Rawls from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, and Vonne Yang from slow fashion start-up InRo.
Take that, Paris! - Cultivating innovation and creativity: Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no. 448 are Sebastian Berto from Fast Fashun and Jamileh Hargreaves from Moral Fairground.
Illustrating climate conversation with a scarf - As an addition to the toolbox, craftivists are being mobilised to make global temperature Quick Climate Scarves for Climate Conversationalists to wear to illustrate the global temperature rise.
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More on faith
- Getting involved with faith and fashion - Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no. 455 are Tejopala Rawls from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, and Vonne Yang from slow fashion start-up InRo.
Faith groups gather to stop new coal, oil and gas - Scripture and prayers from different traditions were read at the Christ Church Anglican Church in Geelong in the early, rainful morning of 13 October 2022
Flooded? Here comes an arc - Guests in The Sustainable Hour no. 434 are Father Peter Martin and Thea Ormerod from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change.
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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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