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The Sustainable Hour no. 518 | Transcript | Podcast notes
Our guests today are Jamie Jeffries and Sarah Molnar from Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, IPAN. We also listen an excerpt of astrophysicist Tom Murphy’s youtube-essay ‘Here We Are’.
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The 518th episode of The Sustainable Hour circles around the interconnectedness of war and environmental destruction, the fragility of our civilisation, and the need for humility and a new perspective on our place in the world.
It touches on the issue of weapons trade fairs and the importance of questioning the intentions of our political leaders when they turn Geelong into a hub for weapons manufacturing, making it a potential target in future conflicts.
“A lot of people don’t know the extent of weapons manufacturing in Geelong. There are at least three companies that are making parts for the F35 strike fighters that are being used to bomb Gaza, to kill – murder – children in Gaza. There’s Marant, which operates out of the old Ford factory in Norlane. There’s Quickstep out at Deakin Uni Waurn Ponds campus and Kemring in Lara. And then just the other day, Hanwha, a really big Korean weapons manufacturer, which has been building its factory out at Avalon for a while. Their factory was officially opened the other day with of course, Defence Minister Richard Marles there doing his thing, spruiking war.”
~ Jamie Jeffries, Independent and Peaceful Australia Network
AUKUS, the alliance between Australia, the US, and the UK, is deepening Australia’s involvement in the US-led military alliance and supporting the atrocities in Gaza.
Meanwhile – while our leaders are getting themselves and their media contacts all excited about building climate-wrecking weapons in preparation for climate-wrecking conflicts and wars – the climate emergency has now become a terrifying reality hitting down hard on all of us, destroying our properties, livelihood, and even taking lives – as if that war our politicians are preparing for had already started.
The oil and gas industry is poisoning our atmosphere and covering up this crisis. But it is our political leaders we can hold accountable for having created this mess. If our leaders won’t protect us and life on this planet by taking urgent action to limit global temperature rise, then we need new leaders. Swiftly. The conversation of this Hour ends with a call to action and the reminder that we can make a difference by working together.
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Jaimie Jeffrey is a Geelong activist and co-convener of two peace groups: No AUKUS Coalition Victoria and IPAN Geelong & Vic Southwest.
No AUKUS Coalition Victoria is a coalition of peace, union, faith, environmental and community groups that formed in 2021 shortly after Scott Morrison announced AUKUS. Similar groups formed in most capital cities and came together to create an umbrella organisation: the Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition. Both groups campaign against the AUKUS military alliance, the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, hosting nuclear-powered and potentially nuclear-armed US sea and air vessels in Australia – and preparation for war against China. More here.
IPAN stands for Independent & Peaceful Australia Network. It is a national peace organisation with state and regional branches. IPAN campaigns against war and for Australian foreign and defence policy to be independent of the United States. More here.
IPAN Geelong & Vic Southwest was formed in early 2023 when some Geelong locals joined forces with the pre-existing South West Vic group. The local group campaigns against AUKUS and militarism, for whistleblowers like Julian Assange, against weapons manufacturing in Geelong and against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
During our chat in The Sustainable Hour, Jaimie quoted from “Wage Peace – Disrupt War’s Earthcare not Warfare” – a campaign about the environmental impacts of warfare and militarism. You can find out more about this here: Earthcare Not Warfare.
Sarah Molnar is an active member of the Independant Peace and Advocacy Network (IPAN) and Friends of Torquay. She has been instrumental in a local campaign advocating for a ceasefire, urging Corangamite MP Libby Coker to support the cause. Her efforts gained media attention and led to the inclusion of the petition in a motion for a ceasefire introduced by Adam Bandt in Parliament. Additionally, Sarah submitted a petition for a motion of solidarity for Gaza to the Surf Coast Shire Council. As a mother of three, she is deeply committed to fostering local empathy and connection, highlighting the shared humanity between our children and those in Gaza.
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War and militarism are playing a large and growing role in the destruction of our planet. Up until now it has been seen as a necessary part of life – arming ourselves to protect us from attacks from foreign countries has always been spruiked as a necessity for countries. But really, does it need to be like this? People, like our guests today, peace activists Jaimie and Sarah are challenging us to rethink these assumptions. They are encouraging us to ask questions like: Who really benefits from the sale of weapons? What are the true environmental and climate costs of preparing for and carrying out wars? If we are encouraging the manufacturing of military armaments and equipment in our area, are we more likely to be a target for foreign forces? Are we happy about components made in our area are being used by Israel in its oppression of Palestinians in Gaza right now?
In this space, it’s fascinating to know that a country like Costa Rica, some time ago, decided to dispense with their armed forces and decided instead to invest in their country’s education and health systems. We could do do worse than looking at this model and evaluate it in the cool light of day, devoid of any ally interferences or compromises. The importance of international collaborations, united by the common notion that we all share the atmosphere so let’s protect it together, rather than focusing on how we are different and using that as a reason to not collaborate. Only this will give us the numbers and power to change the political will to take us to where we need to be on climate.
~ Tony Gleeson
“We need to dissolve our love affair with civilisation because it turns out it’s kind of an abusive relationship and that civilisation is a jerk. So we’re better off without it. We should recognise that the system we’re in already robs lives of meaning and has been for ages. It robs Earth of species. It robs Earth of lives.
It’s kind of a marauding menace and it’s never really been any other way. It just took a long time for it to get to the scale where it’s global and it’s apparent that it doesn’t work. Meanwhile, we’ve forgotten a lot of old wisdoms that I think are really fascinating and time tested. They work. They’re really worth studying. I’m interested in learning a lot more. And also we haven’t created new wisdoms that will certainly happen.”
~ Tom Murphy, astrophysicist
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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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COMING UP THIS WEEKEND AT SPRINGVALE NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE :
This Saturday: Craig Castree runs the incredibly helpful and popular Facebook page called “Edible Gardens” by Craig Castree.
Booking link is in Transition Streets Geelong’s Facebook page – it’s not too late, but places are filling fast.
Craig has wonderful tips for urban gardeners to implement in even 5 minutes a day!
He has a small block in Werribee and is also involved with the Werribee Orchard events.
This talk will focus on the power of soils and he will share his secrets for making your edibles insect resistant
Craig will have his wonderful books for sale as well as Refractometers which measure nutrient density.
Come anytime from at 9am if you have produce to share/swap for Drysdale’s monthly swap (or just to see how it works).
Help yourself to a cuppa and snacks then settle in for Craig’s talk at 10.30-11.30.
Then have another cuppa and snack and listen to the wonderful people who set up Bellarine Food Scraps and Compost Warriors – a public composting program in Drysdale! About 15 minutes talk.
This is the second of a series of 6 events run by Transition Streets Geelong in a mini Sustainable Living Festival. This project is supported by the City of Greater Geelong through its Environment & Sustainability Program
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“In 2017, Geelong was globally recognised as Australia’s first UNESCO Creative City of Design. This designation reflects our long history as a leader in design and is about using creativity and innovation to build a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive city, in turn supporting a smart and forward-looking base for industry.
Greater Geelong is also working towards being internationally recognised as a clever and creative city that is enterprising and adaptive. This community-led strategic aspiration forms the basis of everything we do.”
~Excerpt from the Geelong Defence Alliance brochure, 2023
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of our planet to the health of our minds, bodies, and communities?
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Transcript of The Sustainable Hour no. 518
Antonio Guterres:
Climate change is here, it is terrifying and it is just the beginning.
Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.
Tony Gleeson:
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour. We’d like to start off as always by acknowledging that we’re on the land of the Wadawurrung people. We pay tribute to the elders past, present and those that will earn that great honour in the future. We’re on stolen land, land that was never ceded, always was and always will be First Nations land. We can’t hope to have any form of climate justice without justice for First Nations people here. And we also have so much to learn from the ancient wisdom that they honed from nurturing their land and their communities for millennia before their land was stolen. And it’s about time we woke up to ourselves and started to tap into that ancient wisdom.
Mik Aidt:
Oil and gas. The oil and gas industry is poisoning our atmosphere. And they have known for decades that this production of oil and gas is causing a climate crisis. But instead of addressing the issue, they’ve covered it up. Why? Because they want to make their profits.
I think it’s good sometimes to just have an overview of what we’re talking about here. In this world, there are 60,000 power plants, 2 million kilometres of oil and gas pipelines, and there’s about 1.5 billion cars and trucks and buses driving around on the roads. That’s what we’re talking about. That’s where the pollution primarily is coming from.
The good news is that we’re changing the way where our energy is coming from. 30 per cent of the world’s energy now comes from renewable sources. And just eight years ago, that was 5 per cent. So we’ve gone from 5 per cent to 30 per cent in the last eight years, that’s now coming from renewables.
And just in the last year, or rather from 2022 to 2023, renewable energy capacity increased by 50 per cent just in one year. So the rise of renewables – and when I say renewables, I mean solar and wind and hydro – next year is going to overtake coal in the global electricity generation for the first time ever. And that’s something I think we need to remember when we’re discussing all these things about energy and renewables and fossil fuels that actually already next year there’s more renewables producing electricity than there is coal.
Anyway, let’s hear more in detail what’s been happening around the world and for that we have our global outlook scanner, Colin Mockett OAM. What do you have for us today?
Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook:
Yeah, thank you, Mik. Can you bear in mind that it’s a one-way street. Nobody is going back. No country is removing renewables and putting back their coal generators and nobody’s selling electric cars and going back to petrol or diesel cars. It’s a momentum that is picking up pace all the time and nobody is going back on it. It’s just the fossil fuel companies dragging their feet.
Our roundup this week begins in Tonga where United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres opened the Pacific Island’s forum.
He gave a hard-hitting speech in the wake of new data from NASA and the World Meteorological Organisation that showed sea-level rises had doubled since the 1990s.
In light of this, the Secretary-General said that wealthy countries – such as Australia – must immediately phase out fossil fuels and block new coal projects and oil and gas expansion to drastically reduce greenhouse emissions.
He issued a global SOS – reworked to stand for ‘save our seas’, saying that sea-level rises in the Pacific were more than double the global average, with melting glaciers and ice sheets from Greenland and Antarctic causing the accelerating rise.
Elsewhere at the forum, a strangely silent Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was looking to formalise a new climate migration agreement with nations under the threat of swamping.
Meanwhile Secretary-General Guterres said the very future of island states in the Pacific region was in doubt. ‘‘Without drastic cuts to emissions, the Pacific islands can expect at least 15 centimetres of additional sea level rise by midcentury, and more than 30 days per year of coastal flooding in some places,’’ he said.
Now to South America where wildfires in Brazil’s southern Sao Paulo state have killed an unknown number of people, and currently threaten at least 36 cities.
Local and federal authorities were stepping up efforts to control the flames, Sao Paulo state Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said on Sunday.
The fires have raged in the region outside São Paulo, one of Latin America’s most populous cities with more than 11 million residents.
At least 7,300 government workers and volunteers had been deployed across the state to “contain the advance and put out these fires,” State governor de Freitas told journalists. He warned that the flames, spurred on by a heat wave and a drought, are being fanned by strong winds.
While the city of São Paulo hasn’t been affected by the fires, they are on the threshold, with skies filled with smoke and burning trees along the highway.
The region has been plagued with the worst wildfires in decades, according to local news organisation Folha de S.Paulo, which has counted 4,973 fires in the region this year. That’s more than the total number for 2023.
The opposite climate event is happening in Bangladesh, where relentless monsoon rains and flooding have stranded nearly three million people, submerging vast areas and damaging homes and infrastructure.
Reuters TV showed Bangladesh residents evacuating with their belongings by boat and other makeshift transportation as knee-deep water entered their homes.
The region’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre has warned that with the rains continuing, water levels could rise further, raising concern about even the higher ground flooding and even more displacement.
The most affected districts in Bangladesh included Feni, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Comilla and Chittagong, where five major rivers were flowing above danger levels, the FFWC said.
Here, a new Australian report concerns plastic recycling and our nation’s absolute failure to make any scheme work over the past two decades.
It pointed to the failed REDcycle scheme – where supermarkets were found hoarding thousands of tonnes of plastic waste they could not recycle – as an indicator of what’s broken in Australia’s approach to plastic recycling.
“A small voluntary scheme, artificially amplified by the supermarket and product sectors for greenwash marketing purposes and through use of labelling … lacked credible commitment to become mainstreamed and avoided use of the recovered material,” the Boomerang Alliance and Total Environment Centre told the report.
The director of Boomerang – an alliance that comprises more than 50 Australian environmental organisations – Jeff Angel, was quoted saying that “wishy-washy voluntary programs over the past 20 years” have achieved “only minor or no improvements”. The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) echoed these concerns, pointing out that Australians produce, on average, 59 kilos of plastic waste per person each year, and misleading supermarket packaging is making the problem worse.
“Australia generates more single-use plastic waste per person than almost every other country in the world”, spokesperson Cip Hamilton said.
The AMCS accused Australian supermarkets of knowingly engaging in greenwashing tactics, saying they were “particularly concerned with the use of ‘plant-based’ and ‘compostable plastics’”, as well as “single-use” labelling as a means of circumventing state and territory plastic bans.
“AMCS is looking for leadership by governments and corporations to reduce needless packaging, rather than swapping one problematic material to another,” Hamilton said.
And on that very obvious comment, I’m ending my round up for the week.
Tony:
Our guests today are Jamie Jeffries and Sarah Molnar. They’re both from IPAN, which is the International Peace and Advocacy Network.
Jamie:
So IPAN actually stands for Independent and Peaceful Australia Network. It’s a national organisation that has state and regional branches and Sarah and I are on the committee of the Geelong and South West BIC branch. So we’re a peace organisation, so we were doing a lot of campaigning against orcas and we continue to do that, but, we’re very much involved in campaigning to try to stop the genocide in Gaza. but before I launch into the topics I was hoping to talk about on the program today, I just want to preface everything that I’m about to say. I’m sure pretty much everything that Sarah is also going to say with this statement.
Militaries, particularly the US military, clear land to build military airstrips and bases. Militaries lay mines on land and in the sea, which cause untold human and environmental damage when exploded. Weapons manufacturing burns fossil fuels, as they certainly aren’t using green energy to make their weapons, let me tell you. Tanks, missiles, jets, bombs, grenades, and chemical agents rip out forests, destroy ecosystems, pollute waterways and maim wildlife. The toxic waste warfare leaves behind can contaminate soil and water for decades. War and preparations for war have massive and adverse environmental climate impacts. So last time I came on your program, I spoke about the link between militarism and global warming.
I’d like to be able to speak about AUKUS and Gaza. And I’d like your listeners to bear the statement I just read out in mind because war has, war and militarism has impacts on the climate and the environment in a multitude of ways. There’s an incredible connection between militarism and war and damage to the climate and the environment.
And so, let’s all keep that in mind while I’m babbling on about AUKUS and other things.
So look, just a quick update on AUKUS. I spoke a fair bit about it on the show last time, but we now have AUKUS 2.0. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a few weeks ago at the AUSMIN talks, the Defence Minister Richard Marles, who’s also our local MP here in Geelong, signed an updated version of the AUKUS exchange of naval nuclear propulsion information agreement. So Australia had already agreed to pay 4.6 billion each to the US and the UK to increase their shipbuilding capacity. And some of that money has already been transferred. Under the new agreement, the US and the UK can withdraw from the AUKUS deal with 12 months notice if they believe that keeping up their end of the bargain would negatively impact their own nuclear submarine building program. But there’s nothing in the new agreement that says in this scenario Australia would be refunded any of the money that it’s invested. The new agreement also obliges Australia to bear the cost for any losses or injuries resulting from the transfer of the nuclear technology. So for absurd reasons, our government just continues to sign these deals where Australia is just going to pay and pay and pay and pay with no guarantee that we’re going to get anything in exchange for these billions of dollars. So I just wanted to update your listeners on that.
Colin:
Now, Jamie, you started off with a catalogue of environmental impacts of war and the mechanism of war. One of the things that has become obvious in the last couple of years, most especially with the Ukraine and Russia conflict, is that the mechanism of war has changed. It’s no longer if you’re in a tank, you can take over a city. Nowadays, it’s drones flying through the air and coming out of nowhere and each city needs its own whatever I forget what they call it, iron dome or something like that to get rid of. That surely is actually having a worse environmental effect than having the tanks rolling in. Is there any information on the new methods of warfare? That’s my first question. My second one pertains to AUKUS, because it’s quite clear that AUKUS is buying nuclear submarines. They would become targets for drone attacks rather than being helpful on it. They’re not even the weapons of the future and we wouldn’t even see them for 40 years anyway, would we?
Jamie:
That’s right, that’s right Colin. It’s got to be the looniest deal that any country has set itself up for. Yeah, absolutely. By the time we get these nuclear-powered submarines, if we ever do, they’ll be completely obsolete.
You’re right, the future of warfare is in drones and cyber attacks and so on. I don’t have any information on the environmental impacts of drones and drone warfare, Colin. As you say, it’s still fairly new and I don’t know whether that information’s available. But I know that when you had on your program recently, Elyse and Amin from the Caltechs Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign. I was talking about the ecocide in Gaza. And so I’d like to just speak briefly about the link between AUKUS and Gaza. So as I already mentioned previously on the program, AUKUS binds Australia ever closer to the US led military alliance of Western imperialist powers that’s actively assisting Israel in its genocide and echo side of Palestine.
And I think I read just recently that the tonnage of bombs that have been dropped on Gaza, which is this tiny little area, exceeds the tonnage of the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. Like it’s massive, this tiny little area is just being so massively bombed. It’s just beyond belief.
And AUKUS is contributing that by roping Australia further into the US Alliance and to the Western Imperialist Alliance. It makes Australian independent foreign policy virtually impossible. And Kurt Campbell, who’s the US Deputy Secretary of State, bragged last year that AUKUS has locked Australia into supporting US policy for the next 40 years. So, whoever the US decides is an enemy becomes Australia’s enemy and we become totally roped into any war that the US decides to wage. And the US of course is Israel’s primary source of funding and weapons. AUKUS is being driven by US and UK weapons manufacturers who are profiting from the genocide in Palestine, including Lockheed Martin in the US and BAE Systems, which is a British company.
And these are the same companies that are embedding themselves into Australia’s industries, education and technology, assisting to make Australia complicit in that genocide. AUKUS has led to a massive ramping up of militarism in Australia and specifically in Geelong, which I’ll come back to if I may, if we have time. Australian governments since 2018 have had as a goal for Australia to be in the top 10 global defense exporters instead of reviving a diverse supplied manufacturing base. Many Australian companies not previously part of defense supply lines, so who weren’t involved in making weapons or components for weapons are now tendering for those kind of contracts. They’re lucrative, orcish related contracts.
This trajectory will lead the Australian economy to becoming dependent on endless war, and the propping up of violent racist regimes like Israel. The United States economy is already totally dependent on war. I would hate to see that happen here in Australia, but it seems to be happening right before my eyes.
A new law on Australian end use controls on weapons and components exports, which was passed in November last year, 2023, whereby permits for AUKUS partners, so permits for exports to the US and the UK, won’t be required at all, making it really easy for Australian-made weapons and components to be funneled to Israel and other violent regimes via the US and the UK. And of course, our local MPs, Richard Marles and Libby Coker, are totally complicit in the genocide and the exciting Gaza by supporting the US and Israel and not even using the word genocide, by the way.
One of the things that IPAN is doing, we’ve been holding peak hour protest for Palestine every Friday from four to five. We pick a busy intersection in the electorate of Corio, that’s Richard Marles’ electorate, and we stand there with our Palestinian flags and our placards drawing attention to what’s going on in Gaza and Richard Marles’ complicity in it.
I’ll stop there because I don’t want to hog, Sarah might want to jump in and say something.
Sarah:
. . . . For Geelong, it’s this ongoing relentless campaign to Geelong … defence industry, and this also feeds into the air show as well, Council getting involved in that, and pouring money into that exhibit for weapons and defence equipment.
So, you know, we’re doing what we can, and words’ spreading, you know, it’s not just your diehard activists turning up anymore. People are getting angry. People are getting really annoyed with Libby and Richard being completely silent on this issue. And personally with the conversations I’ve had with Libby, she is far more concerned with the protest actions against her, than what’s going on. And she has much disdain at the topic. She rolls her eyes when you speak about this topic. And this is a woman that we’ve elected to talk on our behalf on a range of issues. There seems to be a real gap in understanding that Gaza’s children are our children. Gaza’s women’s rigts are our women’s rights. And this is an issue that Libby is very passionate about locally, but can’t see that we can show that same deep empathy for women abroad as well.
Jamie:
Yeah, good point, Sarah. So yeah, the ADF has this little pop-up recruitment thing down at the Geelong Waterfront at the moment, and they’ll be there till late October.
So we’re going to go down and have a little protest there every Saturday. A lot of people don’t know the extent of weapons manufacturing in Geelong. There are at least three companies that are making parts for the F35 strike fighters that are being used to bomb Gaza, to kill – murder – children in Gaza. There’s Marant, which operates out of the old Ford factory in Norlane. There’s Quickstep out at Deakin Uni Waurn Ponds campus and Kemring in Lara. And then just the other day, Hanwha, a really big Korean weapons manufacturer, which has been building its factory out at Avalon for a while. Their factory was officially opened the other day with, of course, Defence Minister Richard Marles there, doing his thing, spruiking war.
The other thing is that Hanwha’s initial contracts are to build armored personnel vehicles and self-propelled howitzers for the Australian Defence Force, but they’ve chosen Elbert Systems to provide a component. Elbert is Israel’s biggest private weapons manufacturing company because Hanwha chose them as their partner.
Our government has allocated a $917 million contract to Elbert and this contract was awarded after the genocide in Gaza had started. That’s disgraceful. That’s absolutely disgraceful. So I think, and the other thing is the Department of Defence owns a lot of land at Avalon, and they have plans to expand weapons manufacturing there. So all three levels of government actually are funding and driving Geelong toward becoming this defence manufacturing hub. And of course that makes Geelong a target in the event of war. The more weapons manufacturing we have here, the more of a target we become. The United States is determined to wage war against China. AUKUS will ensure that Australia is dragged into that war. Geelong becomes a target.
Jingle:
Scott Morrison: This is coal. Don’t be afraid.
Senator Whitehouse: At the heart of this conflict is a battle between truth and science and power and lies.
News readers on DW:
For the first time ever, global warming has exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for an entire year. There is this tendency towards higher temperature and this is largely…
Professor Dennis Meadows: Future of our Planet
Even if today everyone in the world stopped emitting CO2 and the other important greenhouse gases, even if we brought them today to zero, the climate will continue to change for at least a century, maybe longer. And of course, we aren’t stopping. We’re every year increasing our CO2 emissions. What does it mean? Well, we don’t know for sure because the tipping points are not fully understood, these self-reinforcing cycles at start. know, if you melt all the ice off of the Arctic, then more sunlight is absorbed, which makes things warmer, which melts more ice, etc. It’s a positive feedback loop, when it starts means finally the climate doesn’t care what we do about CO2. It has its own dynamic. It’s always useful to remember: We care about the climate, but the climate doesn’t care about us.
Antonio Guterres’ Earth Day 2024 speech:
Today, the Earth is facing a triple planetary crisis, climate disruption, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. The triple crisis is threatening the well-being and survival of millions of people around the world. The building blocks of happy, healthy lives, clean water, fresh air, a stable and predictable climate are in disarray, putting the Sustainable Development Goals in jeopardy. We have seen what is possible when we act as one. We have shrunk the ozone hole. We have expanded protection for wildlife and ecosystems. We have ended the use of leaded fuel, preventing millions of premature deaths. And just last month, we launched a landmark global effort to prevent and end plastic pollution. We have proven that together we can tackle monumental challenges. And the right to a healthier environment is gaining traction. But we need to do much more and much faster, especially to avert climate catastrophe. We must limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, and we are far off track. To keep 1.5 alive, governments must have cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Many emitters must drastically cut emissions starting this year, and this means accelerating the end of our fossil fuel addiction and speeding the deployment of clean, renewable energy.
Climate Moms advertisement: ‘If you knew’:
Was your last trip to your favorite family camp spot before it went away. How would you spend it if you knew this was your last chance to enjoy your favorite lake? If you knew this was your last opportunity to visit that spot on the beach, how would you make the most of it? Hurricanes are taking a heavy toll. Damage to our coastlines will be permanent. Huge fire burning at a local campground. More than 97 per cent of the park was destroyed. If you knew this was your last, best chance to protect all the places you love, what would you do?
Roger Hallam: A Movement of Movements
Increasingly that’s creating a sense of humility, a sense of people going if we don’t work together we’re going to die together.
Sir David Attenborough: Speaking at COP26
If working apart we are powerful enough to destabilise our planet surely working together we are powerful enough to save it.
SONG
OneRepublic: ‘Truth to Power’
I could tell you I was fragile
I could tell you I was weak
I could write you out a letter
To tell you anything you need
I’ve seen minutes turn to hours
Hours turn to years
And I’ve seen truth turn to power
If you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You’d be a believer
You’d be a believer
Minutes turn to hours
Hours turn to years
And I’ve seen truth turn to power
I could tell you I was ageless
But I know you see the light
I could tell you I’m immune to everything
But that’s a lie
Dust don’t turn to flowers
Skies don’t disappear
But I’ve seen truth to power
Oh, if you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You’d be a believer (believer)
You’d be a believer (believer)
You’d be a believer (believer)
You’d be a believer (believer)
Hard to keep goin’ on (hard to keep goin’ on)
I said it’s hard to keep goin’ on (hard to keep goin’ on)
It’s hard to keep goin’ on (hard to keep goin’ on)
If you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You’d be a believer
You’d be a believer
You’d be a believer
Be a believer
Be a believer (believer)
You’d be (be a believer)
Minutes turn to hours
Hours turn to years
And I’ve seen truth turn to power
Astrophysicist Tom Murphy: ‘Here We Are’:
The universe is 13.8 billion years old and humans have been around on this planet in some form for two and a half to three million years. That’s one 5,000th the age of the universe. So we’re newcomers – we’re the new kids on the block.
It’s hard to comprehend two and a half, three million years. So I’m going to compare that to a time scale that we do have intuition for and direct experience with. That’s a 75 year human lifetime.
So on that time scale, all of our history, agriculture, civilisation, doesn’t go back more than 10,000 years. That’s just 15 weeks out of a 75 year lifetime. So it’s like a recent hobby. It’s something we just picked up. We’re not even very good at it yet. We don’t know what we’re doing. Meanwhile, science has only been around for the last four days of this life. That’s 400 years to us. And then the last day we’ve ramped up our energy and resource usage by leaps and bounds. And in the last 12 hours alone of this 75 year life, we’ve done the majority of our fossil fuel burning and ecosystem damage.
So you realise that this can’t continue. This thing that we’re doing, it might be exciting, and we might think we’re at the apex, but it’s faltering and wavering right now. We’re starting to see the cracks becoming visible.
So a lot of people, I think, see this and are concerned. And that makes sense. I’ve been very concerned about this.
OK, so here we all are, barely alive, at this most peculiar moment in this place.
So let’s talk about this place. And by this place, we mean Earth. It’s always been Earth. That’s our context. We were evolved on this planet as a part of an ecosystem.
And I want to give you some perspective on just how special this place is, especially in the context of space. So if we were to shrink the sun to a grain of sand, one millimetre across something that we can visualise, the solar system is about the size of a bedroom. And the sun has 99.85 per cent of the mass in this bedroom-sized solar system, all in this one sand grain. Jupiter claims almost all of the rest of that and is about the diameter of a human hair, barely visible. Earth is like a bacterium. We can’t even see it.
So this dusty solar system, bedroom size solar system, has less dust in it. If your plants in it less dust than your laptop screen does even after you’ve wiped it clean. It’s really empty. It’s really sparse. Meanwhile, we’ve only traveled a third of a millimeter from our little bacterium earth. And that’s to the moon. And that was 50 years ago.
Since then, we’ve just been really on the skin, barely skimming the surface of this bacterium sized earth. And meanwhile, this environment is very hostile to life. There’s no air, there’s no water, no food. So hope you’re not hungry. And besides lacking those basic requirements of life, which are all, by the way, on Earth, it’s a radiation hazard.
Once you get outside of the protective magnetosphere of Earth, the radiation is up by about 100 times larger, which means that if you’re going to go to the moon or Mars, sign yourself up for cancer because you’re going to get it in short order, you know, in a matter of a year or a few. So in order to be protected, you’d have to live in caves. And think about how disappointing that would be to be sitting there wearing your space suit, but you’re basically a caveman. You know: ‘Where did I go wrong? This is not what I imagined!’
So one way to drive home the difficulty of resources and space is the International Space Station, which is one of these things that just basically skims across the Earth’s surface, has to import its oxygen by rocket launch at a cost of about $100 million per rocket launch.
It’s that hard to take care of the most basic need of human life, which is air. You can’t live without it for even a minute or two. And we’re really tied to the earth and earth’s resources. Very strongly tied because earth is our haven. And it’s our heaven, it’s our blue heaven.
So here we all are. Barely alive at this most peculiar moment in this spectacular life-giving place, together.
But I’d say we’re not really together. We’ve isolated ourselves as humans from the rest of the community of life. We’ve declared ourselves above everyone else. The pinnacle of evolution, the master species. We think Earth was made for us and we were made to rule the Earth. That it’s our destiny somehow to have this glorious dominant presence on the planet. And it’s kind of immature. We’re like adolescents who think they’re invincible and are oblivious to the harm that they might cause to themselves and others in their environment. So the problem with this is that by not paying attention to the rest of the system, the organs, we could die of organ failure. And if we remain in this isolated mode where we think we’re somehow separate and we don’t play by the same rules. We’re not part of the system. And we let the system down and deprive it of the resources it needs. It’s not going to go well for us.
So here we all are, barely alive at this most peculiar moment in this spectacular life giving place, no longer together.
So as members of the cult of human supremacy, which is another name for modern civilisation, and that might seem extreme, but think about it. How do the people you know think of humans and think of ourselves? Is it as superior species as the pinnacle? And if so, that brings problems. There are consequences to that kind of attitude to the point where once, you know, having that attitude, we can’t really be trusted with almost anything.
So imagine that we pursue human equity and we see some people down below others and we want to raise the standards for those people who are below. That means that we’re going to claim more for us, more resources for humans, less for life as if we deserve this, you don’t. And that approach just won’t work. I mean, it’s not working well even in this lopsided arrangement, let alone trying to ramp up how much we give to the human population.
So also, let’s say that we could implement perfect democracy. You know, textbook democracy, perfect information flow, perfect representation, participation, no corruption. If the votes come from human supremacists, these cult members of our civilisation, it’s going to be for the short-term benefit of humans to the exclusion of the rest of the ecosystem, which is really just bad for all of us. It promotes this organ failure.
How about renewable energy? So if we were to be successful at replacing our fossil fuel habit with solar and wind, and there are real technical hurdles to this, by the way, it’s not a guarantee. mean, there things that fossil fuels do that we just can’t get out of, out of the renewables. Well, let’s just say that, you know, sweep those under the rug for a second. What if we could, my question is what splendid things are we going to do with all that energy?
And one way to answer that is to look at what splendid things have we done with the energy that we have had that we’re using today? Well, we’re knocking down forests, we’re depleting the oceans, we’re ruining habitat, we’re eliminating species, we’re losing biodiversity, we’re losing soils, we’re losing life, we’re losing the vitality of the world.
And so by prioritising a transition on the energy front to renewable energy, we’re basically saying the most important thing is that we keep civilisation fully powered so we can go full speed ahead whatever the consequences. So I think intent matters. What do we intend to do? Why should we be trusted with this great energy surplus? What are we going to do with it that’s so great? I’m not, you know, color me skeptical that we’re going to do good things with it, restore ecosystems and prioritise the non-human world. So as long as all of these things are in the hands of human supremacists, I’m afraid that I’m not going to like the decisions that are made and the consequences.
So. If we don’t learn to exercise restraint and sit on our hands, refrain from doing things just because we can. That spells failure. We have to adopt a stance of humility. And in my mind, the choice is humility or failure. So I think we should abandon our fantasies for some glorious destiny that we imagine for ourselves. That’s a mythology that’s not working and it can’t work. It never could have worked. It was always misguided. And if that’s the dream, if that’s the human dream, it’s not an appropriate dream. We need a new dream. That one’s just kind of a little bit rotten in the end. So the only destiny we have is civilisation is destined to fail. It’s not built on a foundation of biophysical, ecological sustainability. It doesn’t even consider those things. It’s built on hubris, not on humility.
So the good news in all this? Lot of people are bummed out when I say civilisation is going to fail. It’s depressing. They don’t want to hear it.
And I get it. I mean, I was there too. I spent decades kind of in that mode. But the reason it’s not as bad as you think, it’s actually kind of simple. That we are not civilisation. Humans are not civilisation. Civilisation is just our recent hobby. It’s still new.
We haven’t done it forever. It’s not part of who we are. It’s not baked in. It’s not our DNA. Civilisation is not humanity. We don’t need civilisation to have meaningful and fulfilling lives. So where do we go from here? I don’t have answers there. I don’t really know, but I sense that it starts with a new appreciation. I think we need to break the spell.
We need to dissolve our love affair with civilisation because it turns out it’s kind of an abusive relationship and that civilisation is a jerk. So we’re better off without it. We should recognise that the system we’re in already robs lives of meaning and has been for ages. It robs Earth of species. It robs Earth of lives.
It’s kind of a marauding menace and it’s never really been any other way. It just took a long time for it to get to the scale where it’s global and it’s apparent that it doesn’t work. Meanwhile, we’ve forgotten a lot of old wisdoms that I think are really fascinating and time tested. They work. They’re really worth studying. I’m interested in learning a lot more. And also we haven’t created new wisdoms that will certainly happen.
So one thing to recognise is that just because we have lived in a hunter gatherer mode for many, many years and it worked and now we’re in the civilisation mode and it won’t work doesn’t mean that we have to go back to hunter gatherer. In fact, we can’t go back. We can never go back. So the future doesn’t have to look like the distant past and it can’t. We get to invent new paths, new ways to live on this planet, founded on a principle and a philosophy that respects all life.
We need to accept roles as humble participants in this great dance, not some masters or overlords. So we need to set aside our tin pot overlord sham and take this next great step. And I’m honestly excited to see where this might go? What happens next? What is our great next adventure?
Okay, so I hope this was helpful. As a parting sentiment, I’m going to share this statement, this blessing of sorts, that may we learn to live within Earth’s bounds to the enduring benefit of all life. Okay?
Colin:
Now, Jamie, you made the point about the Avalon Air Show and it’s something which resonates with me every four years. It’s every four years like the two years. The Avalon Air Show is essentially war washing, green washing because the first two days of each air show is known as the trade fair, which is essentially gun running.
That’s where the different governments of the world, that’s where the Israeli government’s defense people will be there buying drones and learning the latest technology. It’s nothing like the, I don’t know, Tiger Moth wing-walking stuff that they throw to the public and say, look at this, this is the latest technology and come and look, we’ve got an F111. It’s all about selling defence equipment to defence organisations around the world and defence of course is a euphemism for attack.
Jamie:
Absolutely, you’re spot on. And I think that a lot of people don’t really know, don’t realise that the airshow is a weapons expo. Now the Geelong Council is investing $630,000 into the airshow, $505,000 just for sponsorship and 125,000 to have a trade stand there for heaven’s sake. Last year, yeah, last year, the Council cut library funding, cut community services funding, but they don’t seem to have any problem finding $630,000 to give to the air show. So we’ve got some campaigning coming up on that too. So watch this space. I have to come back on the show closer to the day and talk to you about what we’re doing.
Yeah, you’re on. Speaking of trade fairs and weaponry, weapons trade fairs, the Land Forces coming up in Melbourne, a couple of weeks, how many trade fairs do they need?
Yeah, there’s a few things. So Land Forces, the last three years, it was held up in Brisbane and a group called Wage Peace Disrupt Wars, disrupted it so successfully three years in a row that they thought they needed to get out of Brisbane. So they decided to come to Melbourne. But you know, Wage Peace is an international organisation. Yeah, they’re going to be disrupted again.
One of the events that I would particularly like to sprook is… because there’s a campaign called Elbert Out of Victoria and Weapons Out of Avalon. We’re probably running out of time to talk about it, but that group in which I’m also involved is organising a rally outside Hanwha’s office in Melbourne on Thursday the 12th of September at 4.30pm. And we’re going to rally there and then we’re going to march to the Convention and Exhibition Centre where the Land Forces Expo is.
The students are going to do a rally and there’s a few other events that are public and a few where there’ll be a bit of a surprise. Yeah.
Tony:
What’s the response been to your Friday presence on different streets?
Jamie:
Pick our protests, yeah. Well, overwhelmingly positive, we’ve got one placard that says, ‘Toot for Marles to stop army Israel’. So we get lots of positive, supportive toots. We get a very small number of people who yell out something negative and our policy for responding to that is we blow them a kiss and give them a peace sign. And initially the negative comment that people were yelling was often, ‘What about the hostages?’ So I created a placard that said ‘Number of hostages held by Hamas: 135’ – or whatever it was. Then, ‘Numbers held by Israel: 3,991’. Israel is holding hostages to people without charge or trial. And so people stopped yelling that comment at us since we’ve had that placard. So that’s a real positive.
Mik:
Rounding off, what would be your sort-of closing remarks? What would be what you want listeners to take with them?
Sarah:
I think for me, especially locally in Geelong and on the Surf Coast, it’s about really questioning the intentions of Richard Marles and Libby Coker and challenging them and please continue to advocate. They are there, they need to listen and at the moment they are choosing to remain silent. But we need to keep the pressure up.
Mik:
And Jamie?
Jamie:
Look, I think it’s really important to remember that, there’s such a strong link between war and militarism and climate and environmental destruction. That’s the key thing I want listeners of this program to take away. And I would say: Be the conscience.
Colin:
Yes, as you know, we traditionally end with ‘Be the difference’. Be the conscience works for me. But I have another one alternative one and that is ‘Live the difference’.
Mik:
Yeah, we’re getting a good collection. The last two weeks we’ve been talking about being honest.
Tony:
Important as well.
Colin:
And we look, we didn’t even get on… – Jamie and Sarah, we didn’t even get on to the AUKUS deal on how it would be affected if Trump gets back in America. That’s a conundrum that nobody’s tried to untangle yet. And we’re very silent about the manufacture of weapons that go on in our own town.
Jamie:
Absolutely. I think people just don’t know. And I think that’s why it’s great that you with your program are willing to provide a platform for us to speak about that because people just don’t know.
Mik:
And on that note, Jamie, I think also The Sustainable Hour is a place that provides platform for all voices, you know, because they’re also people who disagree strongly with what you have been saying. And especially this topic of Gaza is hotly debated in Australia. And certainly also after the last program we had, there’s been a lot of commenting in social media and The Sustainable Hour is getting criticism. And I want to make sure that people understand that we are also open for listening to people who are on the other side and hearing the arguments. That’s what we’ve been doing in the last 10 years. When we talk about cycling in the city, we have the shop owners who don’t want the cycling and we have the cyclists and we talk with them, not necessarily at the same time. First, we listen to one group, then we listen to another group. And I think it’s important that listeners out there are aware that we do have a place for opposing opinions on this so that we can listen and learn. And they can too.
Colin:
That’s a nice note to finish on, Yeah. Go and learn. Listen and learn.
SONG
The Kiffness (David and Jute Scott): ‘The Gallows’
Tell me something – in this PC World
Don’t you have something that’s worth fighting for?
For that petition to remove a statue, won’t change.
If you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right. Tell me something, bull
Aren’t you tired of getting so annoyed? What do you stand for?
Statues of tyrants we just can’t ignore
History to be erased I’m calling for a change
Cause in these bad times we must change our ways
We’re on extreme ends
We’re all divided
We’ll never find common
Don’t get so offended I can’t wait till the end
Where do we go to now?
To the gallows, gallows
To the gallows To the gallows, gallows
We’re not far from the gallows now
but I don’t care
Whoa, get over yourself
Street burns, we’re all divided
Dr Melissa Lem:
You think about three things. What brings you joy? What you’re good at? So your skills and your resources and networks and what work needs doing. And in the middle of those three things will be your special climate action. And you know what else is that we don’t have to do it all by ourselves. You can join or create a group at school. You can talk to your parents about climate change and inspire them. There’s so many different things that we can do. It’s like a choose your own adventure book. And there’s no better adventure out there than working together to save the planet.
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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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