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The Sustainable Hour no. 550 | Transcript | Podcast notes
This week’s episode of The Sustainable Hour is a call to action – not with banners, but with choices. With floodwaters rising, fish dying, and the climate crisis no longer knocking, but barging through the door, The Sustainable Hour team reflects on the deeper causes behind the destruction and the silence that allowed it to unfold.
No guests this week – just co-hosts Tony Gleeson, Colin Mockett and Mik Aidt speaking their minds. A raw, heartfelt and unscripted session filled with hard truths, hope and new clarity about where the real power for change lies: in starving the demand.
After Tony’s Acknowledgement of Country, Mik delivers a powerful rant: “Get off gas. Get off petrol. Stop the burning. No more waiting, no more whinging – let’s get on with the job,” he says.
Colin’s Global Outlook includes:
– Oxford researchers’ new global river map to improve flood forecasting
– Apple cutting emissions by 60 per cent without offsets
– China hitting record renewable generation
– Europe’s outdated grids holding back clean energy
– Ross Garnaut’s vision for Australia as a renewable export superpower
A call to action
Visit letition.org to sign Kate Lockhart’s open letter to your local MP, urging real climate leadership and opposition to new gas projects.
Concluding comments
The core message of this Hour is that we need to starve the demand for fossil fuels, instead of relying on our politicians to stop the flow of dirty fuels. When the demand dies, the supply will very quickly follow.
This is how we win – by starving their market.
Fighting every new project with more protests, banners and petitions has so far not shown real life results at the level and impact we had been hoping for and aiming at. Emissions keep rising every year, fossil subsidies are going up as well, and so does the global average temperatures, and all the graphs showing glacier ice melt, ecosystems collapse, extinction rates, and frequency of extreme weather calamities.
Change isn’t just about politicians. It’s about you and me. Every dollar you spend, every conversation you start, every decision you make – it all sends a signal, to the market, to the business owners, to the politicians.
Meanwhile, the sounds of the rallying drums for a unified global climate movement to stop the insane decisions that have led us into the climate crisis are getting louder and stronger. More and more people are letting go of the things that have divided them in the past. Things like: “You are too radical for us to work with you” or “You aren’t radical enough for us to work with you”. The divisions of the past are being replaced by uniting calls such as: “We all share the atmosphere so let us protect it together”.
This coming weekend, a large part of climate doers and thinkers will meet at an online convention, Rev21, initiated by Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam. The Sustainable Hour and Centre for Climate Safety will be there as well.
Rest assured that we at The Sustainable Hour will be reporting on – and active participants in – this non-violent movement.
Be the demand. Be the difference. Starting from today.
Demand the Shift | Lyrics
– A call for consumer-powered climate action inspired by our ‘Be the Demand’ segment which was inspired by this podcast episode by Gareth Kane: ‘Demand: the one word that will save the planet’
→ More music from The Sustainable Hour
“When the new Environment Minister, Murray Watt, was named as Environment Minister, the very first thing he did was say, hey, we’ve got to sort out one big problem, and he flew immediately to Western Australia where he spoke with the Premier and the miners, and that’s Gina [Reinhart] and Andrew Forrest and all of the people who… they’re all in each other’s pockets of course, in Western Australia, but it’s also a Labor Party stronghold, so it’s a big political thing he’s got to do there – [the Northwest Shelf project] – but he must wind up by saying no to this project. We do not need a giant new gas project.”
~ Colin Mockett, in The Sustainable Hour no. 550
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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wadawurrung People. We pay our respects to their elders – past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.
The traditional custodians lived in harmony with the land for millennia, nurturing it and thriving in often harsh conditions. Their connection to the land was deeply spiritual and sustainable. This land was invaded and stolen from them. It was never ceded. Today, it is increasingly clear that if we are to survive the climate emergency we face, we must learn from their land management practices and cultural wisdom.
True climate justice cannot be achieved until Australia’s First Nations people receive the justice they deserve. When we speak about the future, we must include respect for those yet to be born, the generations to come. As the old saying reminds us: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” It is deeply unfair that decisions to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t live to face the worst impacts, leaving future generations to bear the burden of their inaction.
“The Indigenous worldview has been marginalised for generations because it was seen as antiquated and unscientific and its ethics of respect for Mother Earth were in conflict with the industrial worldview. But now, in this time of climate change and massive loss of biodiversity, we understand that the Indigenous worldview is neither unscientific nor antiquated, but is, in fact, a source of wisdom that we urgently need.”
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, weallcanada.org
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“If you want to create change, don’t fight the old world. Start building a new one.”
~ Buckminster Fuller
“Fossil fuels are a dead end – for the planet, for humanity and yes, for the economy.”
~ Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General
“Be richer by being the difference.”
~ Colin Mockett
→ SBS News – 28 May 2025:
NSW faces insurance ‘catastrophe’ as 3,500 remain isolated after devastating floods
“Communities on the NSW mid-north coast and Hunter regions are rallying together to recover from floods that have left five people dead and nearly 800 homes uninhabitable.”
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This is climate vandalism
Alex Engel-Mallon from Climate Council wrote in a newsletter on 28 May 2025:
This is climate vandalism.  The Albanese Labor Government has just approved Woodside’s North West Shelf gas extension,1 unleashing 4.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution.2 That’s the equivalent of 10 years’ worth of Australia’s annual emissions waved through in a single, shameful decision by our new Federal Environment Minister.And it gets worse: this climate bomb is just one of dozens of new coal and gas proposals lined up and awaiting a federal government decision. The science is clear: if we want a safer future for our kids, these projects must be stopped.3 So we’re fighting back: launching a new campaign to help make fossil fuel approvals politically toxic, and push for powerful laws that can stop new projects in their tracks. Donate now to our Fossil Fuel Fighting Fund Just three weeks ago Australians voted for a renewable-powered future – and rejected ex-Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s polluting policies. Peter Dutton had vowed to fast track approval of the North West Shelf project on the election campaign trail.4 So why is the ALP Government taking its lead on climate policy from Peter Dutton? This will be a permanent stain on the Albanese Government’s legacy – and it undermines the real, hard-won climate progress we’ve made elsewhere on renewable energy and transport. This is a decision that’s hard to comprehend when communities on the NSW Mid-North Coast are still reeling from yet another disaster made more destructive by pollution from coal, oil and gas.5 How could the government have got this so wrong? It will further damage the oldest rock art in the world at nearby Murujuga. And it paves the way for even more polluting gas projects – and the destruction of one of Australia’s most precious natural wonders, Scott Reef, off the coast of Western Australia. This decision makes zero economic sense, either. It only serves the interests of fossil fuel corporations. The world is heading for a gas glut by 2030.6 The majority of this project’s gas will be exported. Any that is reserved for use in Western Australia isn’t needed there either, as the state already has more gas than it can use.7 Projects like this keep getting approved because fossil fuel corporations hold enormous power over our politicians, policymaking and public opinion. For decades, they’ve donated to political parties,8 misled the public with expensive public relations and advertising campaigns,9 and even set up fake “grassroots” movements to try and influence our election outcomes.10 They are gaslighting lawmakers and everyday Australians into believing that the damage they are doing is somehow good for us. If we want to stop new coal and gas, we need to make these decisions politically toxic. That’s why today we’re launching our Fossil Fuel Fighting Fund. We’re aiming to raise $500,000 by 30 June to power a high-impact, science-led policy, advocacy and media campaign to strip the industry of its social license and combat industry disinformation with facts so new approvals become politically toxic. Your tax-deductible donation will power: • Expert research and analysis that reveals the true costs of new coal and gas. • Hard-hitting media and communications campaigns that expose the lies of fossil fuel corporations and build public opposition. • Influential policy and advocacy work to secure strong laws that stop polluting projects in their tracks. Yes, I’ll help fill the Fossil Fuel Fighting Fund Labor won the federal election by a landslide and now has an opportunity to do what’s required to protect our kids’ future. While the ALP is pushing for more renewable power, they are also still supporting fossil fuels. Your donation today can help hold them to account. Thank you. With outrage and determination,  Alex Engel-Mallon Advocacy Director Climate Council P.S. This project alone will unleash 10 times Australia’s entire annual climate pollution. And there are dozens more like it waiting in the decision queue. If we don’t dismantle the fossil fuel industry’s influence now, our kids will pay the price. Donate to our Fossil Fuel Fighting Fund today and help us put a stop to more climate damage. |
→ The Guardian – 28 May 2025:
Labor approves extension of Woodside’s contentious North West Shelf gas development
“Murray Watt will approve the extension of one of the world’s biggest liquified natural gas projects from 2030 to 2070.”
→ The Sydney Morning Herald – 28 May 2025:
The PM just extended a major fossil fuel project for 45 years. Here’s what it means.
“The approval ends years of uncertainty over the North West Shelf’s future, and marks one of the biggest political moves so far by the re-elected Albanese government.”
| Australia Institute wrote in a newsletter on 28 May 2025: |
| Environment Minister Murray Watt just approved the extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project in WA. It means the Albanese Government has greenlit emissions equivalent to 12 new coal-fired power stations for 46 years, and paved the way for the destruction of a key cultural heritage site. This is a stain on Labor’s second term of government, betraying those who elected them to act in the interests of the climate, not against it. But the fight isn’t over. This huge export terminal will require feed-in gas projects, and by stopping them we can reduce the harmful impact of this project on our climate. Today’s news is cold-hard proof that stopping individual gas projects will never be enough – we need to shift the politics for good. Here at the Australia Institute, we have been consistently and systematically dismantling the hold the gas industry has over our politics and media. One gas lobby lie at a time. Australia Institute research has shown that electricity prices in WA have tripled since Woodside started exporting the state’s gas in 2020. It is also our research that shows the Australian Government collects more in HECS/HELP repayments from our students, than gas exporters like Woodside have ever paid in Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. And just last month, our research led Peter Dutton to admit that we don’t have a gas shortage in Australia – we have a gas export problem. That’s despite the gas lobby successfully relying on this lie for years. It is disappointing that the Government has approved this climate wrecking gas project. But we at the Australia Institute are resolved to keep changing minds and use our research to change the narrative about gas in this country. |
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Petitions in support of farmers
Change.org wrote in a newsletter on 27 May 2025:
In Victoria and South Australia, farmers are facing the worst conditions they’ve seen in decades — and they’re calling for urgent action before it’s too late. Across both states, producers like Stuart Green and Wade Boughen are doing everything they can to keep their animals fed and their businesses afloat. But with no rain, no feed, and no government recognition of what they’re facing, the situation is growing desperate.
Stuart, a sheep farmer in Benalla, hasn’t seen a blade of grass in months. He’s running out of water, hauling in feed, and preparing for a massive hike in his emergency services levy from $1000 to $2500. Like thousands of others, he’s also a volunteer firefighter. “We’re really struggling,” he says. “It’s the driest it’s ever been — and now we’re being taxed like we’re the problem.”
Protect VIC Farmers from New Tax – Sign Now
In South Australia’s Murray-Mallee, mixed farmer Wade Boughen hasn’t sown a single crop this year. “It’s just too dry,” he says. “We’re relying entirely on sheep for income now — and we’re getting low on hay. When we run out, where’s the grain and hay going to come from?” Despite conditions worsening, South Australia still hasn’t formally declared a drought, leaving families like Wade’s without access to the support they urgently need.
The pressure on farming communities isn’t limited to financial hardship. Advocates and farmers are warning of the toll the drought is taking on mental health across regional Victoria and South Australia. In border regions, the recent death of a respected agronomist has left communities in mourning, as more families quietly face growing stress in isolation.That’s why farmers across both states are speaking out — and they need your help. Whether it’s calling for a fairer levy in Victoria or demanding a drought declaration in South Australia, the message is the same: they’re facing a crisis, and they’re asking our leaders to act.
Stand with SA Farmers – Sign Now
→ Geelong Independent – 23 May 2025:
Premier responds to protests
“Premier Jacinta Allan has spoken out in support of the controversial Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF) levy following protests in Geelong.”
“It’s devastating.”
~ Australian farmer
→ The Guardian Australia – 22 May 2025:
Drowned herds. Towns under water. Farmers in NSW are facing ‘absolute devastation’
“Those who survived the 2021 floods and are still recovering from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, ‘have lost absolutely everything’ in the latest deluge.”
→ ABC News – 24 May 2025:
‘This could be the beginning of the end’: An ecological disaster has been unfolding on Australia’s coast
“A mysterious, brown foam appeared on a beach an hour south of Adelaide. It was just the beginning of a toxic algal bloom that has now grown to thousands of square kilometres in size, killing precious sea life in its wake. Experts say it could be a sign of things to come.”
→ 7 News – 7 April 2025:
Toxic seafoam on SA’s coastline continues to kill off sea life as holiday season approaches
“Dead kangaroos, tens of thousands of dead cockles and swimmers still getting sick as algae bloom haunts SA’s pristine beaches.”
“Each 1.0°C of warming means the air holds 7 per cent more moisture, and warmer air is wetter air. This leads to two things: More droughts and worse drought conditions on the ground for farmers and nature – because the warm air can hold more water without raining, and sucks more moisture out of the soil. AND more floods, because when that heat breaks, and the water has to go somewhere, there is an extraordinary amount ready to pour down.
Every bit of CO2 we avoid burning means a bit less ‘warm air’ and fewer extreme weather events our kids will have to deal with. Every step we can take to decarbonise our homes, communities and vehicles will be crucial to achieving this, so here are some of the steps being taken around the country to electrify everything.”
~ Electrify2515.org
“What are the costs that we all feel because of climate change? In other words, what are the costs because of the increased chance of wildfires or coastal flooding or drought? When the government regulates industry polluters for doing things, it has to justify taking actions, and that justification is based on what happens if industry is not regulated. Government doesn’t want to regulate industry just because it’s fun to regulate industry. We regulate industry to protect people, because industry will sometimes take actions that don’t take into account the cost of doing business, and what that cost has on people.”
~ Inside Climate News – 25 May 2025:
The True Cost of Pretending Climate Change Doesn’t Exist
2084 = +4°C
At the current rate of warming, we are on track to reach +4°C by 2084. In just 50 years, we could be living on a planet that is largely uninhabitable.
Let that sink in.
According to the University of Exeter, 3°C of warming could kill 50% of the global population. And yet we are heading for 4°C, if we continue business as usual—expanding fossil fuels, building more, consuming more, and denying what’s right in front of us.
Anyone still claiming “we shouldn’t be alarmist” should no longer be taken seriously in public discourse. If you’re not alarmed, you haven’t understood the science—or the stakes.
This projection is based on Leon Simons’ extrapolation of data from “Global Warming has Accelerated Significantly” (Grant Foster & Stefan Rahmstorf, 2025 preprint), extending the trends to a terrifying +4°C future.
We are not talking about a distant future.
We are talking about ensuring an uninhabitable earth within our lifetimes.
What are we doing?
Driving at 130 km/h straight toward a wall
Imagine you’re sitting in a car with the people you love. The kids are in the back seat. You’re driving at 130 km/h – straight toward a wall.
But instead of braking, you say: “I’ll just ease off the accelerator a bit… we’ve set a goal to hit the brakes in five years.”
It sounds insane – and it is insane. But that’s exactly how we’re handling the fact that we’ve exceeded most of nature’s boundaries – the so-called planetary boundaries.
Take just one of these boundaries: climate change. The safe limit corresponds to about a quarter of a ton of CO₂e per person per year, if shared equally across the global population. The average Dane emits about 13 tons of CO₂e per year.
We should be braking immediately – but instead, we’re still talking about gradual improvements and green growth.
Politicians are standing on the side of the road with flashy signs, saying: “We have a climate law, and it looks like we’ll reach our goals by 2030” – but they have no emergency brake. No plan for the next two weeks.
And what do we do? We stare ahead, see the wall – but turn up the music.
We fool ourselves into thinking someone will find a solution in time.
But the kids in the back seat don’t need our excuses. They need us to hit the brakes now. Not in 2030. Not even in a month. We still have the chance to stop – but it requires us to wake up.
~ Jan Vejnaa Hansen, Energy and climate expert. Senior Specialist and Member of the Board at Frederiksberg Forsyning, Denmark
Libby, what are you waiting for?
A personal coverletter sent along with May’s Letition letter
Dear Libby Coker,
Congratulations on your strong election victory – and to your Labor colleagues as well. An extraordinary result for your party, which shows clearly that the Australian people were voting for certainty.
Certainty was a key word in this election – and why? Because we are increasingly surrounded by climate calamities and other danger signs.
The attached PDF is this month’s Letition. I am part of your local Bellarine/Surf Coast community, though formally a Corio voter.
We are all mailing and emailing this Letition to as many of our Federal Parliamentarians as possible to express our deep concern about climate breakdown.
A majority of Australians – between 56% and 83%, depending on the year and the poll wording – want the Labor government to do more to address climate change. All figures, including the recent election result, underscore that you have a robust public mandate for stronger climate action.
So, what are you and your party waiting for?
How can you allow fossil fuel companies to proceed with opening new projects, when your constituents are counting on you to get on with the job of protecting us from the calamities of climate breakdown?
When will you begin to acknowledge that your government’s ongoing inadequate action on climate is putting us all in danger?
In our local community radio program The Sustainable Hour this week, you will hear me playing an audio clip of Prime Minister Albanese saying:
“We need to acknowledge that whilst Australia has always had extreme weather events, science told us that those events would be more frequent and would be more intense and that is placing pressure on the system. It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of, and we certainly are.”
It is good to hear a Prime Minister finally acknowledging that we have a problem – that it is a challenge. But why did he completely avoid any mention of what dealing with the challenge actually means? And when will you begin to speak honestly about how your party claims to act on climate, while at the same time supports the ongoing burning of climate-wrecking fossil fuels?
I must admit that, personally, I struggle to trust politicians who say one thing and do another – and I’m not confident this letter will even be read. Nevertheless, we still hold quiet hope that this month’s Letition might help support a genuine move towards urgently reducing our collective CO₂ footprint.
Kind regards
Mik Aidt
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Transcript of The Sustainable Hour no. 550
Antonio Guterres:
We are flirting with climate disaster.
Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.
Tony Gleeson:
Welcome to episode 550 of The Sustainable Hour podcast. We’d like to start off by acknowledging that we’re broadcasting from the land of the Wadawurrung people. We pay tribute to their elders – past, present, and those that earn that great honour in the future. We’re broadcasting from stolen land, land that was never ceded. Always was and always will be First Nations land. There are so many lessons for us from their ancient wisdom, a wisdom that was honed from nurturing both their land and their communities for millennia before their land was stolen. And we saw much of that in the most recent… in the Sir Douglas Nicholl’s round of AFL that some of our listeners may have seen, where every game started with a ceremony acknowledging our First Nations brothers and sisters. Yeah, lots of why we receive lots of wisdom and that’s what we’re going to need to use, talk about, discuss and implement as we face up to the climate crisis.
Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia, speaking at a press conference in New South Wales:
We need to acknowledge that whilst Australia has always had extreme weather events, science told us that those events would be more frequent and would be more intense and that is placing pressure on the system. It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of, and we certainly are. And that is why…
Mik Aidt:
“…and that is why we have now decided to step up and deal with the climate crisis for what it is: A dangerous threat to our lives and our well-being, our economy. This is our moment to act as responsible adults who admit our mistakes and now will do what’s necessary to secure the safety and the livelihood for all of Australians, the children in particular and future generations for our society as a whole.”
Did our Prime Minister, Albanese, say that? No, of course he did not.
He babbled on about something with the insurance industry and what to do next, and so on. Because of course this is getting expensive. Thousands of homes inundated. Once again, we’re talking millions and millions of dollars lost. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry is raking in billion dollar profits from selling a product that’s causing this mess.
But do we hear even one single word about that connection in the general mainstream media? No.
No, not a word.
In some way, I guess you could say this is what we’ve been waiting for. Because out there people have refused to accept that we are in a climate emergency. It was apparently too hard to see, you can’t see that emergency outside your windows. So it’s like, “It’s too metaphorical, you know.”
But now, if you live in New South Wales or you live in South Australia, you know what we were talking about, back then, more than a decade ago, when we started asking our governments to declare a climate emergency, so that we could be ahead and actually avoid this kind of mess… And some local governments did, but the federal government refused to listen to… Even when 400,000 Australians asked them to declare a climate emergency. That didn’t happen. And here we are.
ABC report on 24 May 2025:
This is potentially the start of the decay of the oceans, which is going to be the start of the decay of mankind. It needs to be taken seriously. There has to be a way of letting the world realise that this could be the beginning of the end. It’s just giving us warning signs.
Mik:
Record flooding in New South Wales. Mass fish death and drought in South Australia. Coral bleaching and the cyclone that we had a couple of months ago up in Queensland. Bushfires in Western Australia.
10 News:
First to some emergency warnings around the country tonight. There are several bushfires burning right now in the south of Western Australia. In Esperance, there are two different emergency warnings for Daliup. People east of the Daliup River…
This is threatening to be the worst flood that …
Mik:
And now we have to listen to this song again, ‘Scrap the tax’:
Brad Batten, Victorian opposition leader:
If we are elected on November next year, Victorian Liberal will scrap that tax and…
Mik:
That’s the Victorian opposition leader Brad Batten at a rally last week where he promises angry farmers who are upset about a new tax that he will scrap the tax. Exactly echoing what we heard 12 years ago and at that time which worked really well for Tony Abbott when he was talking about scrapping the carbon tax and got elected and became prime minister because of that and because he wanted to stop the boats which is exactly what you do not when you scrapped the carbon tax. You actually call for more climate refugees, just a little bit further in the future. Anyway, put that aside.
Part of the reason why we’re now seeing emergency services under increased stress and why we need to pay more money for that is, thank you very much, Mr. Abbott, because of your scrapping the carbon tax. And because of all those climate denying politicians, not just here in Australia, of course, but around the world who are the very reason for the mess we are in, for the climate breakdown.
Jacinta Allen, Victorian Premier:
More and more is being asked of our emergency services.
Mik:
I tell you this, and I’ll be honest – and I try to not to shout – doesn’t help to shout. The problem is no one else seems to want to speak up about it. Honestly, I know quite a few people who are thinking something along these lines and they are keeping it for themselves, and here’s what I’m thinking:
Australia, could we maybe stop the whinging? Stop the self-pity? Stop complaining about, ‘I’m not getting enough help.’ What about just getting on with the job? The job that we have known about for decades and put off again and again. Even though the warnings were loud and clear 20, 30, 40 years ago. But no, we look the other way, we plug our ears, we tell each other ‘It’s not that urgent’, or if it was, then somebody would do something, obviously, or: ‘It’s somebody else’s job.’ ‘It’s China,’ ‘It’s over in the United States,’ and so on.
Hey, here we are: Climate breakdown is not some future theory anymore. It’s daily life in Australia, and for that matter all over the world. And the worst of it: This is just the beginning.
ABC News:
A flood emergency unfolded on an unprecedented scale in parts of New South Wales this week. Towns in the Hunter region and along the Mid North Coast were inundated, with hundreds of people fleeing to evacuation centres. Taree was one of the worst affected areas after the Manning River surpassed the 1929 record flood.
Mik:
So many people have been rolling their eyes when these mad climate activists were out in the streets blockading traffic and saying ‘This is an emergency!’ and ‘We need to do something!’ and calling for more renewables and zero carbon and so on, and then it becomes all a question of ‘That’s too expensive’ and ‘We don’t have that kind of money’, and ‘I’m not a scientist but…’ – you know, the classic line spreading doubt about the science. Was that your uncle saying that? Well, what did you do, back then, 10 years ago, to change the conversation?
And excuse me for asking, but are you not the one still driving in a petrol car or heating your house with gas? Even though you have known for decades that burning fossil fuels is driving this kind of destruction? So why have you not made the switch?
Get off gas. Get off petrol. Stop the burning of stuff.
Oh, ‘It’s too expensive!’ – or: ‘Let’s wait and see what the government will do’ and: ‘Could it really be that urgent?’
Well, then don’t start complaining about the cost, the drowned homes, the drowned animals, even the drowned people people, who didn’t need to die but did, because you couldn’t see the urgency. You called those who were speaking up about it ‘alarmists’.
Even today, even now, with with a newly elected government continuing to open up new coal mines and allowing for new major gas projects to go ahead, throwing billions of dollars of our tax money after subsidising that fossil fuel industry that’s wrecking everybody’s lives… How does that make any sense?
Antonio Guterres:
Who pays the price for climate destruction around the world? Not the fossil fuel industry, pocketing profits and taxpayer subsidies as their products wreck a vogue. Every people suffer, with their lives and livelihoods, with higher insurance premiums, volatile energy bills and higher food prices.
Mik:
And you’re protesting and rallying to scrap the taxes that are needed to pay for the disasters which you helped cause? That’s a childish sense of entitlement. And of course, the language that you use is that this is a ‘natural disaster’. This is ‘mother nature’ that’s to blame here. No, it’s not ‘natural’. It’s man-made. It’s a human-engineered disaster. And it’s time we own up to it.
Enough with all the excuses. Enough with all that denial. Grow up, toughen up and face what needs to get done. We’ve got to roll up our sleeves now and pay the bills for our mistake, and pay for that cleanup, and pay for a transition where we replace our old polluting machines with ones that run on clean renewable energy. No more waiting, no more whinging, please. Let’s get on with the job.
And let’s get on with The Sustainable Hour which cannot get started unless we have the global outlook. Let’s hear what you, Colin Mockett OAM – what have you gathered for us in terms of what’s been happening around the planet in the week that went?
COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK:
Yes, thank you, Mik. And our World Roundup this week begins in the UK, where a team of researchers from Oxford University has unveiled the most complete map of the world’s rivers to date, offering a powerful new tool in the fight against rising flood risks that is driven by climate change. It’s known as GRIT, that’s Global River Topology, and the map captures river systems in far greater detail than ever before, showing not just where the rivers flow, but how they split, branch, interact with other surrounding landscapes and the dangers of flooding. As such, they are a wonderful new tool in the forecasting of where floods are going to come.
Flooding is the most widespread natural disaster globally, causing over a hundred billion dollars, that’s US dollars, in damages each year and affecting millions of people. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall, that’s especially in densely populated areas, and the need for better flood prediction tools have never been greater.
Now that’s where the new global map comes in. Built using high resolution satellite images and advancing elevation data, GRIT maps 19.6 million kilometres of rivers. It identifies 67,000 bifurcations, that’s the splitting into channels, and provides critical insights into how water moves across the Earth’s surface. And they’ve made it available.
to all of the world’s scientists. It’s not enough to assume rivers just go downhill in a straight line, especially not when they’re trying to predict floods, understand ecosystems, or plan to eliminate impacts. This map shows the world’s rivers in their full complexity, said Dr. Michael Wortmann, who developed GRIT at Oxford as a research associate on the EVO flood project.
He said the system can be regularly updated with the latest satellite and topographic data, making it a living tool for scientists, governments and planners. The work will support everything from flood forecasting and drought monitoring to water quality management and conservation planning. Now to the US, where Apple, quite separate from its Trump issues, announced that it has cut global emissions by over 60 per cent without any carbon offsets and it remains on track to hit carbon neutrality by 2030. It’s using recycled materials in all magnets and batteries and suppliers sourcing 31 million megawatts of clean energy. The tech giant said it is scaling up sustainability across its entire supply chain.
Now to China, where it announced that wind and solar generated over a quarter of China’s electricity last month, that’s April 2025, and the amount was China’s highest monthly share of renewable generation on record. During the past five years, solar output quadrupled from 23 terawatt hours to 96 terawatt hours, and solar share tripled from 4.1 per cent to 12.4 per cent of the nation’s generation.
Now that’s all sorely needed because according to the Copernicus climate change service in Paris, April 2025 was the second hottest April on record. The hottest was last year, 2024. The new Copernicus report shows global temperatures rose 1.51° degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. And the 12 month period of May 2024 to April 2025 was 1.58° degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. So we’ve well and truly beaten that 1.5° degrees we were trying to stay under.
The report said sea surface temperatures remain abnormally high, Arctic sea ice is still shrinking, and extreme weather is becoming the new norm. Floods, droughts and heat waves continue to hit critical regions, from Central Europe to the Americas, Asia and, of course, Australia.
Elsewhere in Europe, a new report released by the Institute for Energy Economics highlights a current disconnect between Europe’s renewable energy ambitions and the continent’s electricity grid capabilities. That’s despite the rapid rollout of wind and solar projects, outdated infrastructure and planning are holding back progress and costing consumers billions, the new report said.
It said that Europe-wide 1,700 gigawatts of renewable energy projects are currently stuck in grid connection queues. That’s across 16 countries. And that’s a staggering three times what’s needed to meet the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets. Meanwhile, across just seven countries, 7.2 billion euros worth of clean energy was wasted in 2024 alone, during to the grid constraints. The new European analysis covered 32 electricity transmission system operators across 28 countries. It reveals that many operators continue to rely on inadequate planning frameworks that fail to match up to surges in renewable generation. This is despite 13 European countries targeting fully decarbonised power sections within that time frame.
The report argues that unless grid planning rules are urgently modernised, Europe risks locking itself into natural gas dependency, to simply bureaucratic inertia, rather than any real necessity. Spain and Portugal’s recent blackout served as a stark reminder of the need for updated, modern and resilient grid systems.
Back home, I have an extract from Ross Garnaut’s opening address to the Energy Users of Australia’s annual conference in Melbourne. He said that Australian exports of goods embodying renewable energy could reduce global emissions by 10 per cent. They would generate export income for Australians vastly larger than are now provided by the gas and coal industries.
The new industries are large enough to drive restoration of growth in Australian productivity and living standards after a dozen years of stagnation. That’s since 2013. He said that the federal election result had strengthened the capacity of government to introduce and sustain policies that support Australia in contributing disproportionately to global decarbonisation.
This was by supplying goods and embodying renewable energy to the high-income economies of Northeast Asia and Europe. It’s opened an opportunity for Australia to enter a new era of full employment with rising incomes for a growing population. That’s all about creating steel here using our green energy. And so instead of exporting the iron ore, we would create the steel here.
Professor Garnaut is the Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University. He’s a director of the Superpower Institute and Zen Energy.
But now we’re going to finish on the bad news. Last week, the world’s greenest sports team, Forest Green Rovers, was involved in a playoff match against Southend United to get promotion to the next division. The match resulted in a 2-2 draw after extra time, so it went to penalties and Forest Green lost the penalty shootout 4-2. So Southend went to the play-off match this weekend at Wembley and Forest Green will continue to play in their National League, the fifth tier of England’s football system, next year. And that ends our round-up for the week.
Jingle:
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.
Mik:
Thank you, Colin, and thank you for your calm voice, because that’s really needed at this point. Certainly I need it. I’ve watched too much news this weekend. It’s shocking to see all the devastation and all the people who are crying out for help on one side, but then on the other side, when I see all those people who are saying, ‘How did this happen?’ And ‘Mother Nature is hitting us so hard’, and they feel so sorry for themselves, as if we didn’t know that if we don’t do something about the climate crisis, the climate emergency that we have been talking almost screaming about for 10 years that we need to be upfront about, then something like this is going to happen. And here we are. Even our prime minister acknowledges that. That’s why I played that little clip. It’s a new thing to hear our prime minister admit that “Yes, we knew this was coming.”
Anthony Albanese:
Whilst Australia has always had extreme weather events, the science told us that those events would be more frequent and would be more intense and that is placing pressure on the system. It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of.
Mik:
Politicians know very well what they are doing, and they know that we are going to be hit hard by the climate crisis. And then they are, like, expecting, ‘Okay, once we begin to see the calamity, maybe then people will begin to be more prepared to pay what it costs, to roll up our sleeves and get the renewables in place.’
Colin:
Yes, there was a big difference too with this particular Albanese government, for its first term, they kept things really quiet and they kept Tanya Plibersek, who was the environment minister, pretty much under wraps, mainly because they thought that if they were to take any large steps in the way of helping the environment, they would become a target for the conservative side of parliament.
Now we’re in a situation where the conservative side of parliament has been diminished to such a point that the government can approach climate change and they can do things about it. And Anthony Albanese is not making the right words and the right signs to show that he’s aware of this and he’s going to do it.
He sounds to me like he’s just going to carry on with his softly, softly approach that clearly didn’t do it. If our government was taking a firm step for climate change, we wouldn’t have the situation we have at the moment where we have flooding in New South Wales and southern Queensland, drought in Western Victoria, fish kills in South Australia, and further fish deaths and the likely extinction of a fish species in Tasmania. All of these we predicted, or we didn’t predict them of course, we just reported that science, our scientists have predicted it and our government has sat on its hands right the way through.
And the science that you pointed out with Anthony Albanese are likely that they’re going to continue to sit on their hands because they’re saying, hey, we’ve got all kinds of problems, we’d talk to the insurance industry. When in truth, they should be talking to the fossil fuel industry and the car industry because our consumers are not just driving around in petrol driven cars, as you pointed out in your rant, they’re driving around in great big four wheel drives that are similar to trucks. And these are being used by mums to drop their kids off at school. And grannies go into the senior centres. If you have a look in the car parks, there are four-wheel drives parked in the car park for elderly people who working in op shops. It’s a ridiculous situation we find ourselves in.
Now we know why this happens. Nobody is pointing it out on the mainstream media, so I’ll point it out now: It’s because the Morrison government made it much cheaper and easier to buy a four-wheel drive ute than it would be to buy a small four-cylinder car. So while the rest of the world is driving smaller and more economic cars, we as a nation have suddenly moved into driving small trucks. And it was encouraged by one of our governments and the new government that came in didn’t do anything to redress the balance. It’s the same story that happened with our education all over again in that the conservatives when they were in power they said we’re going to give more money to the private schools and less money to the public schools and then when Labor took over they said yeah we’re just going to keep it that way because we don’t want to be controversial.
Mik:
Colin, do remember last year here in Geelong, we had the then climate minister Chris Bowen came, and he actually admitted that Labor was going to be very careful with this whole question of climate change and renewables and so on because they were at that time concerned that they needed to win this election. But now they actually did win, as you mentioned: they have won, and they have a mandate, so they could act.
And I just want to point out that you remember we’ve talked quite a bit in The Sustainable Hour about the independent who ran in Corangamite, Kate Lockhart. She ran as a community independent, and she has just… this Monday, she sent a letter, an open letter to Libby Coker, who is now our member for Corangamite, and asked her to please step up on the… speed up for renewables and on taking action on climate. And that open letter, in case our listeners would be interested in supporting and actually sending a copy of that open letter to Libby Coker, so she can see that the community really is behind Kate Lockhart and what she was saying there – it’s put up on this website called letition.org.
Letition.org is this campaign site that’s been a little bit dormant during the election period, but now it’s coming back to life. And here’s a letter that we can all collectively send to Libby Coker.
Actually, I think you can send it to any member for any electorate. You just choose the electorate where you are and then you will be sending that letter to the member for that electorate. So that’s one way of voicing our concern and the fact that we need to stop burning fossil fuels. And we also need to stop these crazy big projects like the Woodside expansion. There’s this huge gas project that they want to start, and they’re just making a decision about it right now, in the next week.
That’s the Northwest Shelf project in Western Australia. But when the new Environment Minister, Murray Watt, was named as Environment Minister, the very first thing he did was say, hey, we’ve got to sort out one big problem, and he flew immediately to Western Australia where he spoke with the Premier and the miners, and that’s Gina and Andrew Forrest and all of the people who, they’re all in each other’s pockets of course, in Western Australia, but it’s also a Labor Party stronghold, so it’s a big political thing he’s got to do there – but he must wind up by saying no to this project. We do not need a giant new gas project.
Mik:
I have, though, on that note, produced a segment, you could say, a Sustainable Hour audio segment, which in a way questions whether we need to be so much after our politicians to stop these big fossil fuel projects. Because here’s the thing: If there was no demand for that gas, then they could build as many big projects as they want, but they would go nowhere, because nobody would be buying their gas. So I think it’s time to have a discussion about how we stop these big projects. Is it that we need the politicians to do it? Or is it actually that we need to stop the demand for these products? Listen:
. . .
Speaker 1: Asher (at 29:08)
Be the demand.
What does it take to stop those destructive and damaging fossil fuels? For years, Australians rallied under the red banner of Stop Adani, one of the most visible and passionate climate movements we’ve seen in this country. Activists protested, blockaded, petitioned and pressured banks not to fund the controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.
Yet, despite all the resistance, Adani went ahead. The mine was built, coal was shipped. Last year alone, almost 10 million tons of coal was dug up. And this year, Adani aims to ramp up production even further.
So, did the campaign fail?
Speaker 2: Phoebe
Not exactly. Because the fight was never really about Adani. Adani, and every other fossil fuel company, exists to serve a demand.
As long as that demand remains high, someone, somewhere, will dig up and sell more coal. That’s the brutal economic reality of our world.
Asher:
And here’s the hard truth, one that even I, as someone who helped launch the local Stop Adani Geelong campaign, have had to come to terms with. If we truly want to stop coal, oil and gas, the answer isn’t blocking supply. It’s starving demand.
Phoebe:
Coal, oil and gas have dominated our energy systems for over 250 years. They’ve been optimised, subsidised and deeply embedded into global economies. But their dominance has always been driven by one thing: Demand.
As long as there are customers, there will be suppliers.
Asher:
So what happens when demand collapses?
Phoebe:
It will collapse. Not because activists shut down coal mines, but because renewables are now cheaper. That’s the real game changer.
Look at Norway. It wasn’t protests that killed petrol car sales. It was the rise of electric vehicles. Market signals, not slogans or street blockades, drive real shifts in our modern world.
Asher:
History has shown us time and again, when demand disappears, entire industries crumble.
Whale oil was once the go-to lighting fuel, until kerosene and electricity came along. The whaling industry collapsed almost overnight.
CDs and DVDs ruled the entertainment world until streaming services wiped them out.
Coal was once the backbone of Europe’s industrialisation. Now, coal plants are shutting down at record speed because wind and solar power are cheaper. England has shut down all its coal plants for good.
Phoeebe:
This is a key lesson for climate activists. Stopping one coal mine, one gas pipeline, that’s not enough. If we really want a climatesafe future, we don’t need to fight every single fossil fuel project. We need to make them irrelevant by shifting demand to better, cheaper and cleaner alternatives.
Asher:
Adani built the Carmichael mine because demand for coal still exists, with India and China relying heavily on coal. Companies like Adani will keep investing in fossil fuels for as long as it’s profitable. But here’s the thing. When demand collapses, Adani will drop its coal projects and shift its billions elsewhere. And as things stand today, there’s only one elsewhere: Renewable energy. In fact, Adani has already invested heavily in solar and wind, even while profiting from coal.
Phoebe:
But let’s be clear, this isn’t just about Adani. Every fossil fuel company that’s still extracting, processing and selling carbon-intensive energy, they don’t see themselves as the problem. They’re simply responding to demand. Which means the real power to change the system doesn’t lie with them, it lies with us.
If demand is the engine of the fossil fuel industry, then shifting that demand is the most powerful action we can take. Now this isn’t just about individual choices. It’s about large-scale market forces, government policies and business leadership.
But as individuals, we still have an enormous role to play. Because when enough of us start demanding new products and making conscious choices about where we spend our money, it sends powerful signals to industries, politicians and lawmakers.
Asher:
Here’s what it takes. It starts with us, the consumers. You and I, we are the ones to make fossil fuels irrelevant.
Phoebe:
How do we do that? We choose green electricity over fossil powered providers. We drive demand for electric vehicles and public transport. We support businesses that prioritise sustainability in their supply chains.
Asher:
And the businesses?
Phoebe:
Well, businesses that lead with sustainable innovation will gain market share. Companies committing to using 100 per cent renewable energy sell more.
Also, importantly, large-scale purchases, like governments and corporations, can quickly shift their procurement to carbon-neutral options. So investment in sustainable materials and circular economy practices accelerates.
Asher:
This is where government comes in. Governments drive demand with policy. Just like feed-in tariffs made solar power cheaper, new policy incentives can drive sustainable technologies. Mandates for EV adoption, like those in Europe and China, continue to expand worldwide, and they could do that here as well, if we had a government that understood what is needed now.
Phoebe:
Public investments must support clean infrastructure instead of propping up fossil fuels. Enough with the subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. It needs to stop immediately.
Asher:
But remember, politicians won’t do anything unless they see that this is what their voters demand. And that is why this is the most powerful climate action you can take: Be the demand. Every dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of future you want. Whether it’s choosing a renewable energy provider, buying sustainable products, or supporting businesses that are actively decarbonising.
Phoebe:
Every single decision sends a market signal. So the next time you hear about a new coal mine, oil refinery or gas pipeline, ask: what’s keeping it alive? More often than not, the answer is demand.
Asher:
And the only way to truly stop fossil fuels is to make them obsolete. We all have a role in making that happen.
Phoebe:
A low carbon future isn’t something we sit and wait for.
Asher:
No, it’s something we demand.
Phoebe:
It’s something you demand.
Not just from politicians, but from businesses, markets and entire industries.
Asher:
Stop thinking of climate action as blocking supply. Start thinking of it as starving demand.
Because in the end, the future we create is the one we demand.
Phoebe:
I’ll leave you with this quote from Buckminster Fuller: ‘If you want to create change, don’t fight the old world. Start building a new one.’
. . .
Clip from the Netflix series ‘Black Sails’:
The world changes. It is inevitable. Perhaps the only thing that is inevitable.
. . .
SONG (at 36:57)
Audio file
‘Demand the Shift’
[Verse 1]
They’ve ruled our world for two centuries
Black gold was the lifeblood of our economy
They paid their way to block any regulation
But the tide is turning and now power is free!
[Chorus]
Demand the shift! And then you shift the demand
The world is changing ’cause you take a stand
We set the course, we draw the line
The real power to change is yours and mine
[Verse 2]
When we don’t need CDs, those factories close
Coal and gas is in an even worse collapse
No need to ban it, we won’t have to fight it
When the market starts moving, it will be killed overnight
[Chorus]
Demand the shift! And then you shift the demand
The world is changing ’cause you take a stand
We set the course, we draw the line
The real power to change is yours and mine
[Bridge]
We plug into sun, we harness the breeze
We drive electric, we’re planting trees
We choose the brands that play it fair
Demand a future without despair
[Chorus]
Demand the shift! And then you shift the demand
The world is changing ’cause you take a stand
We set the course, we draw the line
The real power to change is yours and mine
[Outro]
The real power to change the system
lies with us when we move together
We shift the gear and we are changing the story
The world is safer now because we starved the demand
. . .
Audio clips in the song:
Bernie Sanders, American politician:
This is not a time for wallowing in despair and hiding under the covers. The stakes are just too high.
Gareth Kane, British sustainability consultant and podcast host:
It’s no cliche that we should be the change we want to see in the world. Well the most effective way to do that is to increase demand for the components of a sustainable economy. Every pound, euro or dollar you spend makes a difference and you should use it to demand a different world.
Antonio Guterres:
Fossil fuels are a dead end for planet, for humanity and yes for economists.
. . .
Mik:
Be the demand, what do you think?
Colin:
Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Yes, it’s what we should all be doing. Now, what do you reckon, Tony?
Tony:
I reckon, always, it’ll be a combination of factors. It makes it more difficult, I guess, when the fossil fuel industry continues to advertise and they just spin it a different way. So right now, during primetime viewing, we’re finding out about ‘renewable gas’. That’s the term they’re using! And all of it is just, you know, they’re experts at prolonging their demise and though every day is worth many, many dollars to them and they will do everything in their power to put off, postpone their demise.
And it’s happening, but it’s still, we still got people like in the last week, Australians that have died in extreme weather – intensified extreme weather events – and you know they’re real people, they’re not just numbers. They are real people and that’s, you know… That’s a frustrating thing about this week. We’ve been saying it for… for 15 years… sorry, almost 15 years. 550 episodes, and just about every one of those has included this plea for, you know, we’ve just got to get our shit together on climate, and that that’s everyone, that’s the politicians, who are slowing it down and getting in the way. The fossil fuel companies who delight in not being pressured. And yeah, more of us have got to stand up. It’s just to create that political will because that’s what’s needed.
Mik:
And I think, importantly, not just stand up, but speak up. Some people feel it’s too demanding to ‘stand up’. Like, you have been on the streets, you have been very active as a protester. But I think a lot of people don’t want to be protesters. They just want to get on with their lives. So ‘speaking up’ is a different thing. Speaking up is something we all can do. You know, we can talk with our family members. We can discuss: ‘OK, how do we afford this or that change? Because now we need to do it.’
Tony:
Yeah.
Mik:
And I think the young people can go to their parents and they can demand that, ‘We can’t continue like this. We need to make that change.’ We need to change the demand.
Tony:
Yeah. I see them as being the same thing, Mik, standing up and speaking up. ‘Quiet concerns’ don’t exist for pollies. Or anyone else. Colin, you’re going to say something?
Colin:
Yeah, the bit that got me on that clip that you played was the fact that change is inevitable. Change is inevitable, we know! Because, look, from my own personal experience… I have a daughter who went up quite high in the hierarchy of Rabbit Photo Shops. Do remember when there were Rabbit Photo Shops in every community? You’d go there and you pick up your photos within a couple of hours. All that went with the advent of digital cameras and then the advent of phones that included digital cameras. Suddenly there was a big industry… I mean, if you had shares in Kodak, you would have lost a fortune because they all disappeared because of the progress that went on. What they didn’t do, you didn’t get Kodak fighting the way that the fossil fuel industries are fighting their sly battles in order to try and keep in work. But we do know from the weekly output that I put out, we do know that Saudi Arabia is very much aware that they are on a slide because worldwide people are buying less and less and less of their product, which is the fuel for their motor cars.
So Saudi Arabia is right now investing in clean power. They’re aware of it. They’re just not telling anybody. The truth, the bold truth is that we’re… throughout the world, we are switching to electric vehicles and we’re simply buying less of their product. They’re aware of it because they’re looking at the figures. It’s kept from us, the consumers, because the fossil fuel companies want us to keep on buying their product. And in our ignorance that’s what we’re doing. But the truth of the matter is in 10 years or 15 years time the vast majority of Australians will be driving electric vehicles and I’m talking about truckies and tradies as well, because the quality of electric vehicles are getting that much better.
The next thing we’ve got to do is get more people onto public transport and we can’t do that for example in Geelong because we’ve got a really second-rate public transport system of poor buses. We need to bring in light rail, a light rail that works going from places where you’re going to be easily identified to places where people want to go. So they’re basically, in Geelong for example, they’ve got to connect shopping centres with the railway and bus stations. And they’ve done the right thing by putting the bus station next to the railway. Now they’ve got to connect that to the places where people want to go with regular light rail rather than fossil fuel buses.
Tony:
We have difficulty in looking at things from a systemic or with a systemic view. It’s all little bits and pieces that don’t necessarily match up. But what you’re talking about, Colin, then was just that a systems approach. And then once transport is looked after, and it’s just the will that’s not allowing that to happen at the moment. Yeah, it moves out into other areas. And it has to go hand in glove with renewable energy. We’ve got to have renewable energy to start with and then we start using that renewable energy instead of the fossil fuel engines that we’re using, either in industry or in transport or whatever.
Mik:
And what’s needed there, Colin, what’s really needed is, as we have mentioned many times in The Sustainable Hour, is the changing of the story in society. That everyone is on that same page of that renewables is actually good for us. So, you know, stop the whinging about that it’s costly and get on with it. We need to change that story. This is what I’m excited about as well. That, you know, I begin to see the signs that this is happening. The story is changing.
I mean, just listen again to Anthony Albanese, our prime minister, who said something quite remarkable. Nobody really noticed it in the media, but have a listen to what he actually said.
Anthony Albanese:
We need to acknowledge that whilst Australia has always had extreme weather events, science told us that those events would be more frequent and would be more intense, and that is placing pressure on the system. It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of, and we certainly are. And that’s why…
Mik:
“It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of,” right? So I’m waiting for Anthony Albanese to say the right things next time he talks about this, and then explain to us what that means. How do we “face that challenge” and “create that consciousness”? Let’s hear about that!
Jingle
Mik:
This was all we could fit in one Sustainable Hour, which was different: We didn’t have an external guest because we had so much we felt we needed to say ourselves, for once, didn’t we?
Colin:
And we can still leave it with the standard ending, ‘Be the difference’, because this time, ‘be the difference’ means ‘Be the different fuel for the future’. I can speak on a personal level because for two years now, nearly three years now, we’ve been carbon free in our home and transport, and we’ve got much more money. And our next door neighbour has bought himself a little MG electric car. He used to have an old Ford and now a little electric car next door. And there’s some tradies opposite to us, both of us. And they’re very interested too. It’s just by talking to other people in the community. You tell them how sensible it is to not use carbon and they’ll do it.
Mik:
Be richer by being the difference.
Colin:
Exactly!
. . .
SONG (at 50:28-53:46)
‘Starting From Today’
[Verse 1]
Looking at your face right now
As you scroll through the headlines
I see the worry in your eyes
About the world we leave behind
And I know you’re wondering
If anyone will make it right
But baby, let me tell you something
That keeps me up at night
There’s still time to change the way
Things are going day by day
And when you feel like giving up
Remember what I say
[Chorus]
I can be that difference
I can be that change
I can be that difference
Starting from today
[Verse 2]
Dad, I’ve seen the videos
Of how things used to be
Clear skies and clean waters
It’s hard to believe
But I’m not just sitting here
Waiting for a miracle
Got my friends beside me now
We’re making it possible
Every small step counts, they say
Little changes pave the way
When it seems too much to bear
Listen close, I swear
[Chorus]
I can be that difference
I can be that change
I can be that difference
Starting from today
We rise together
Hand in hand we’ll find a way
We rise together
Every choice we make today
Shapes tomorrow’s way
I can be that difference
I can be that change
I can be that difference
Starting from today
We rise together
Starting from today
. . .
Newsreader on Channel 10: (at 53:46-54:13)
It is hard to comprehend the scale of the New South Wales flood disaster. Why was it so bad?
Weather reporter:
What we do know is that increase in sea surface temperatures does provide a lot more moisture and increases these rain events. And in climate change, with our oceans storing so much of this extra heat, particularly in comparison to the atmosphere, we are going to continue to see these kind of rain and flooding events becoming worse, which is why eastern parts of Australia are so vulnerable to climate change.
. . .
Richard Dennis, Australia Institute, speaking at Big Gas event in Newcastle: (54:13-55:42)
You’re not alone in thinking that Australia is getting taken for a ride. You’re not alone in thinking that as one of the richest countries in the world, the third biggest fossil fuel exporting country in the world, Saudi Arabia 1, Russia 2, Australia 3. Third biggest fossil fuel exporter in the world, world’s largest coal port just down the road down there
And I know everyone here, because gas prices are really high and coal prices are being really high, I know you’re all feeling really rich.
When the price of oil goes up, the Saudis get rich, right? it’s coming. You’re just on my punch line, mate. Think about it. In Saudi Arabia, the price of oil goes up – is good for the Saudis.
Yeah, where’s the dividend?
Yeah well it’s coming. You just ruined my punchline mate. The thing is, in Qatar, the price of gas goes up as good for the Qataris. In Australia, the price of oil and gas is going up. Shit! I can’t turn on my heater or my AC. Yeah, costs a living crisis. How can this be? And the answer is really simple. It’s because in Australia, we don’t tax this industry. It’s foreign owned and other people in the rest of the world are making a fortune out of Australia’s fossil fuel exports. Causing our climate change. And we are the one’s going, ‘Gee, yeah, the air conditioning’s a bit expensive.’ You’re not alone in thinking that Australia is getting taken for a ride.
. . .
Jingle: (at 55:42-56:08)
Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister of Australia:
This is coal, don’t be afraid.
Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia:
We are the land of droughts and flooding rains. We recognise that. It is a very volatile and often capricious climate.
Sheldon Whitehouse, American senator:
At the heart of this conflict is a battle between truth and science and power and lies.
. . .
Charles Perry, clip from Wicked Problem podcast:
Like the industrial revolution replaced human slavery, and we had a whole different system with the fossil driven era, we now need a revolution to a totally different era, where growth itself no longer is the primary driver. Because human behaviour has become so focused on competitiveness around that growth and like, gross domestic product, it just motivates all the wrong behaviours from a human point of view. And I think we’re much better than that as a humanity.
. . .
SONG: (at 56:08-59:54)
‘Collision Course’
La-ya-ya, mo-mo-ya (Tribal chants build)
Can you feel it coming?
[Verse 1]
Looking at the sky today
Something’s different in the air
You say I’m just imagining
But these changes follow everywhere
Walking through the empty fields
Where life once used to grow
The signs are getting clearer now
With every passing day
You can’t keep running from the truth
We made our bed, now we must lay
[Chorus]
We’re on a collision course
(Hey-ya, hey-ya)
Nature’s force vs human force
(Hey-ya, hey-ya)
This collision course
Time to change our course
[Verse 2]
Temperature keeps rising high
Waters climbing up the shore
Every season brings us warnings
That we can’t ignore anymore
Mother Earth is speaking loud
Through storm and through decay
[Breakdown]
Ba-da-ya-ya, mo-mo-ya
Ka-li-ya-ya, so-mo-ya
Listen to the rhythm of the Earth
Ba-da-ya-ya, mo-mo-ya
[Bridge]
When we stand as one
(Stand as one)
When we move as one
(Move as one)
When we speak as one
(Speak as one)
Then we’ll find our way
[Chorus]
Turn this collision course (Hey-ya, hey-ya)
Into healing force (Hey-ya, hey-ya)
This collision course (Now we change our course)
This collision course (Together we change our course)
. . .
Antonio Guterres: (at 59:54-60:00)
The longer we wait, the harder it will become.
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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 on Wednesdays
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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Podcast archive
Over 570 hours of sustainable podcasts.
Listen to all of The Sustainable Hour radio shows as well as special Regenerative Hours and Climate Revolution episodes in full length.
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