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The Sustainable Hour no. 553 | Transcript | Podcast notes
– and an invitation to take local climate action
In this week’s Sustainable Hour, we meet two inspiring guests who both work passionately to restore our connection with nature and with each other: Jan Cossar, president of the Port Phillip EcoCentre, and Deborah Sykes, co-founder of the community group Electrify Southside.
Their conversation with us centres around two exciting events coming up in Melbourne:
The Southside Electrification Expo – a free, practical, community-led event in St Kilda Town Hall at 10am-5pm on Sunday 22 June 2025 The Australian premiere of the film ‘Nature – the Call for a Reconciliation’ at the Astor Theatre on Wednesday 25 June 2025 at 7pm, raising funds for the EcoCentre
The EcoCentre plays a vital role in citizen science, environmental education, and climate advocacy. Its work is rooted in community action and collaboration, from monitoring plastic pollution to lobbying for stronger environmental laws. Both Jan and Deborah speak passionately about the power of grassroots movements, local engagement, and systemic change – and how we can all play a part.
The film ‘Nature’ is a poetic and powerful visual experience, offering a deeply moving invitation to reconnect with the natural world. It highlights both the beauty of Earth and the urgent need to protect it, but does so without preaching or politicising.
We also talk about the practical side of action. Deborah shares the story of how Electrify Southside was born from a simple need: for neighbours to help each other with the practicalities of going electric – solar panels, heat pumps, EVs, and more. The group has grown rapidly and is now hosting an expo expected to draw over 1,000 people.
. . .
In our Global Outlook, Colin Mockett OAM shares news of a significant German court ruling: a Peruvian farmer successfully argued that a German energy giant may be legally responsible for climate harm caused abroad. This could have major implications for international climate accountability. Colin also updates us on electric vehicle trends – with Norway now nearing 100 per cent EV sales, while Australia is still catching up.
NEW SONGS
We premiere two new songs this week:
We also play excerpts from:
• ‘EV Smile’ – a light-hearted celebration of the EV lifestyle
• ‘I Heard It on The Sustainable Hour’ – a song about this weekly podcast which has been running for 12 years
→ More songs from The Sustainable Hour
. . .
MINI BIOS
Jan Cossar, EcoCentre Committee President
Jan brings over 25 years’ experience in organisational management and governance, program design, and monitoring and evaluation to her appointment as the President of EcoCentre’s Committee of Management. As the Managing Director of Strategy Matters, a consultancy company focussed on the international aid and development sector, she works throughout the Asia-Pacific with clients including Australian Government departments, United Nations agencies, local and international not-for-profits, and private companies, helping them to think strategically and improve the quality and reach of their work. Jan holds postgraduate qualifications in Organisational Management, Social Policy and Evaluation, is a Board member of ActionAid Australia, and works as a pro-bono advisor to the Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia.
Deborah Sykes, EcoCentre Committee Secretary
Deborah has served on numerous not-for-profit boards including as a Board Director and Chair of the Governance Committee of Thorne Harbour Health (formerly the Victorian AIDS Council), as a Board Member of the Australian Breastfeeding Association, and as Vice President of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government alumni committee. She is currently the Manager of the Strategic Projects and Regulatory Policy team within the Victorian Government’s Public Health unit. After beginning her career in nursing, Deborah transitioned into public health and brings over 20 years of leadership, risk management and strategic planning experience to the EcoCentre. She holds qualifications in business and human resources management as well as an Executive Masters in Public Administration, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Deborah is inspired to bring her skills to the EcoCentre’s Committee of Management because of the organisation’s proactive culture, community focus and its location in the City of Port Phillip, which has been her home for the last 20 years. “We need sustainable solutions in all that we do,” she says, “and this way I can start at home.”
. . .
And we close with:
Jan and Deborah remind us that the path forward lies in unity – not just with nature, but with each other. Whether it’s protecting the ocean, helping a neighbour with their EV, or advocating for laws that stop pollution at its source – every act matters.
As Mik says: “Even what we do here in The Sustainable Hour is to connect people who are on the right track and maybe just need that extra bit of courage that comes from being connected.”
→ Tickets to the film ‘Nature’ on Humanitix: humanitix.com/ecocentre-nature-premiere
→ More info about the Port Phillip EcoCentre: www.ecocentre.com
→ Details about the Electrify Southside Expo: www.electrifysouthside.org
“Collectively we can be very powerful. The EcoCentre provides our community and City of Port Phillip, Bayside and beyond with a range of programs that celebrate connection, taking action to preserve and cherish our natural environment and also to influence policy and to affect positive change, that is at a systems level, so that we are looking after the rich environmental reserves we have.”
~ Jan Cossar, President of Port Phillip Eco-Centre
→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via Apple Podcasts or Spotify
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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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Transcript of The Sustainable Hour no. 553
António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General:
We are flirting with climate disaster.
Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.
Tony Gleeson:
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour podcast. We’d like to start off by acknowledging that we’re broadcasting from the land of the Wadawarrung people. We pay tribute to their elders – past, present, and those that earn that great honour in the future. There are so many lessons for us from their ancient wisdom, a wisdom that was honed from nurturing both their land and their communities, millennia before their land was stolen. That’s what we’re going to need to use, talk about, discuss and implement as we face up to the climate crisis.
Mik Aidt:
What is it that really connects us in our community? It’s not just our conversations and our enthusiastic sharing of ideas and so on. It’s something much simpler, something we often overlook because it’s always there. It’s listening. Listening to each other – and to nature, to the quiet things out there that don’t shout for our attention, but still have so much to say and so much to give us.
Today in The Sustainable Hour we’ll be talking about that kind of listening, the deeper kind. We’ll be talking about a new film called ‘Nature’, which is a beautiful and thoughtful invitation for us to maybe slow down for a moment and tune in to that natural world we are so much a part of.
But of course, before we do that, we also need to hear what’s been happening around the big wide world out there. Colin Mockett OAM has, as usual, been filtering through the tonnes of news that are coming in and boiled it down to a Global Outlook News Bulletin which we provide to you every Wednesday here in The Sustainable Hour, to kick it off. So over to you, Colin. What do you have for us today?
COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK:
Thank you, Mik. Well, our round up news today begins with statistics that were released last week that showed that almost 90 per cent of new cars sold in Norway during the previous year were fully electric. Not hybrid – fully electric. By the end of this year, the government in Norway expects sales of new petrol and diesel cars to fall to zero and meet its goal to end the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2025. It’s on track to do that.
In a country that’s often ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, petrol-powered cars appear to be on their way to extinction. The transition is visible everywhere in Norway. In Oslo, the capital city is filled with Teslas and Volkswagen ID.4s, rather than petrol hatchbacks.
Charging stations are commonplace and tucked besides apartment blocks and supermarkets. Delivery vans glide past with barely a whisper, and on the highways outside of the capital, chargers are spaced every 50 kilometres or so. Even the country’s northernmost provinces, where winters are long and temperatures fall well below freezing, EVs are now the norm.
‘Norway is the undisputed king of electric vehicles,’ said Benjamin Sovacool, the director of the Institute of Global Sustainability at Boston University in the US. ‘Their per capita rates are much higher than anyone in the world,’ something like 20 times higher than China, which is the second biggest market.
And just to complete the picture, Norway generates around 98 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydro power.
In comparison, only about 15 per cent of the vehicles sold in the rest of Europe are electric. The United States, meanwhile, hasn’t even cleared the 10 per cent line. That’s according to Edmunds, the online automotive research group.
And in Australia, we’re even worse. We’re further behind with just 7.4 per cent of new car sales. Now that figure is based on sales data from the first part of 2025. However, it looks like that could change because EVs reached a new record high of 14.25 per cent of all new passengers and light commercial vehicles sold in March of this year. That’s according to the Electric Vehicle Council.
Now to Durham University in the United Kingdom, where a professor of international law, Petra Minnerop, has looked at a court case in Germany where a Peruvian farmer sued the German energy giant RWE in a German court for damaging the environment and therefore endangering his life on the other side of the world in Peru.
The court’s decision was handed down on the 28th of May [2025]. And while the judges didn’t require RWE to pay compensation, they did side with the farmer in all the key questions of law. The ruling held that German courts do have the authority to hear civil claims for climate harm arising from impacts from climate change. So a Peruvian could, in fact, sued in the German courts under the law, if it could show that a German had caused harm to his property, even if that property is on the other side of the world. And that ruling, according to Professor Minnerop at Durham University, means that, for example, someone in Tougaloo whose home is affected by sea level rise, or a person in Pakistan whose home is destroyed in a catastrophic flood could potentially sue other national countries for climate harms within certain legal limits.
‘It would still be wrong to say that everyone in Switzerland can now sue RWE,’ Minnerop says. ‘Even if you have a concrete event, you would need to demonstrate that there is attribution between this event and the harm. So you’d need to have a study that exactly demonstrates that.’
And over the course of the judgement, the German court went even further in this regard. A reasonable person, it found, would have foreseen from at least 1958, thanks to the work of Charles Keeling, whose laboratory was funded by fossil fuel and automotive companies. He came up with the conclusion that it was scientifically proven and published worldwide that burning oil, gas and coal had the potential to cause long-term harm to the world’s environment. And that could come back very much to bite the fossil fuel industry in the 21st century.
And finally, in a week when the Trump administration moved forward on multiple fronts to repeal the U.S. climate policies, a new analysis was released amid all of the media hype. It quantified the potential costs of the Trump climate and environmental rollbacks for America’s public health, households and economy. Now the study forecast a stunning $1.1 trillion US dollar reduction in the US gross domestic product by 2035. The report was by the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability.
It found that any economic benefits to the policy retreat, if you remember Trump’s EPA head, Lee Zeldin, said that the rollbacks would save at least $1.2 billion a year from the power plant regulatory rollback alone. All of this will be overwhelmed when the negative effects of greater air pollution and contraction in new manufacturing and jobs associated with the energy transition.
‘Overall, are more GDP losses if we roll back clean energy policies,’ said Alicia Zhao, research manager at the centre and lead author of the report. ‘It means even if some of the states are getting gains from the fossil fuel industry, it’s being offset by the much bigger losses in clean energy benefits. From our perspective, the massive trillion dollar hit’ – a trillion dollars is a thousand billion – and that’s how much the US economy is going to lose because of the rollback policies now. ‘From our perspective, the massive trillion dollar hit to the US economy must surely affect some of those Republicans that voted the man into office and might even change their minds.’
And that piece of what is has to be a speculative projection ends our roundup for the week.
. . .
Jingle:
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.
Mik:
Over the last weeks, we’ve been talking here in The Sustainable Hour about climatesafe communities, about collapse, about empathy, and about our relationship, I would say, to nature. And that’s something we will dig deeper into today, I’m expecting, because our guests in The Sustainable Hour today are Jan Cossar and Deborah Sykes. And Jan Cossar is the president of the Port Phillip EcoCentre, which is a centre that’s getting ready for an interesting premiere next week, an Australian premiere of ‘Nature’. Jan, explain to us, what is ‘Nature’ that’s premiering next week?
Jan Cossar: (at 10:50)
‘Nature – the Call for a Reconciliation’ is a stunning documentary film by acclaimed filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French filmmaker, who is renowned globally for his work and a committed environmentalist. This is a recent documentary that he produced this year, and has generously granted us the Australian premiere rights to the film. As such, what we’ve decided to do is to hold a premiere event at the Astor Theatre in St Kilda, which is a lovely old theatre that people will know, to showcase this really stunning visual. It’s like a celebration of nature, of history and nature and is linked then to how we as humans are intersecting with that, in some ways positively and in some ways not so positively.
So it just has this history of our world seen over a long period of time and the beauty of it and how we need to preserve it. And we thought it was so fabulous, we’ve decided to have this fundraiser for the EcoCentre as well as showcasing this beautiful movie.
Mik:
Tell us a bit about this EcoCentre.
Jan: (at 12:23)
Yeah, indeed. The EcoCentre is based… the Port Phillip EcoCentre, it’s a community organisation, environmental organisation, and it’s located, if you know this, in Kildare Botanical Gardens – it is located at the entrance there. And it’s sort of a perfect segway into this beautiful part of nature. It’s really what the EcoCentre does: It provides our community and City of Port Phillip, Bayside, and beyond, with a range of programs that celebrate connection, taking action to preserve and cherish our natural environment and also to influence policy and to affect positive change. That is at a systems level, so that we are looking after the rich environmental reserves we have.
Colin:
Have you seen the film yourself?
Jan:
I have seen it, but I only got to see it on a tiny little screen. He’s a cinematographer and it’s breathtaking. The beauty of our natural world just kept sort of stunning me in a way. However, I will now be able to see it in 200 or 300 times bigger at the Astor on screen. So that will make it a real joy, and it’s also, I guess, for us the reason we decided to go with a fundraising event – is to share the movie with people in a beautiful space on a big screen. Yann was very gracious, so this is the Australian premiere, and we also wanted people to celebrate what we have – but also a call to action for what we need to preserve and look after.
So it’s two things, and it dovetails perfectly into the work we do at the EcoCentre because we are about connecting people, taking action and looking for positive systemic change. So it coalesces beautifully with our values and our ethos – and we want to raise money.
Colin: (at 14:44)
Great, now look, I’m after details if I can. First up: I’m really quite curious, how would this particular documentary differ from the more familiar ones that we’ve seen in a series from David Attenborough?
Jan:
Yeah no, I think that’s a really good question. David Attenborough’s most recent movie was really related to the ocean, to our seas. This is probably a bigger canvas and it is looking historically at our world. So it’s evolution over a long period of time. So it has a historical component as well as a geographic and an evolutionary component to where we are today. So it takes us on a time continuum and we get to see the intersection of the natural world over time and then the impact of humans over a shorter period of time. And the visuals, I mean – Yann’s expertise is as an environmentalist and as a cinematography and photographer and it is a visual splendour, I think, is what I would say. And in a sense, they complement each other. The work that David Attenborough does complements the work that Yann does.
Mik:
Deborah Sykes, what’s your perspective on this?
Deborah Sykes: (at 16:16)
Well, I’m also lucky enough to have seen the film, and it’s fabulous. And I agree with Jan when it’s up on a big screen, it’s going to be incredible. It’s both celebratory and it connects you, but there’s an element, or at least I had an element of sadness, needing to know what we have, what we need to celebrate in our nature and what we are at risk of losing if we don’t do a call to arms. So in that way, it’s poignant and really worth seeing.
And of course, the fundraising bit is an added bonus because the EcoCentre is directly working in this area and just needs to be supported to keep on keeping on.
Mik:
I think we have talked here at The Sustainable Hour over the years, many, many times about our relationship to nature – and history, like you’re saying, Jan. The fact that 150 years ago, when our civilisation in a way was founded and the laws were written, in the beginning of democracy, and so on, actually in the beginning there were paragraphs, for instance, in how we run our businesses – that we needed to protect people and planet. It was in the law 150 years ago. But then as we became more more industrialised, it was removed. Since then, the last 100 years, we have not had a law that actually properly protects nature because it was taken out of our regulation. Deep down, isn’t that what we need to talk about? I mean, it’s fine that you and I have an understanding of the value of nature, but if it’s not in our laws, then companies can do as they please. And that’s what they do.
Jan (at 18:02)
Yeah, I agree with you. I think we have, one of the things at the EcoCentre is that we have a citizen science program that is about looking at things like stormwater drains and what is in those drains that are affecting our waterways. And what we do is we undertake rigorous science to collect that data, to develop reports and submissions to government, not just for the sake of the paper, but to provide evidence of the abuse that is being done to our natural environment, and highlighting why it is so important.
And in fact, government have started to introduce legislation that… it’s not just enough now to mitigate pollutants, but they have to actively now take proactive action. And if they don’t, there will be penalties. And our role is to work with business and government to ensure that that is happening and to have evidence about the changes in the data so that we can show or at least have evidence that things are improving.
And so it becomes very important, I think, one, that we do have legislation and that governments and community organisations and businesses are working together. It doesn’t have to be adversarial. It can be cooperative if we all have the same set of values around protecting what is fundamentally our lungs of life.
Deborah:
I was recently in Cocos Keeling Islands, which are part of Australia. They are in the Indian Ocean. They are sandbagging already because the water level is rising hugely. So thinking about what Colin was talking about in Germany, being able to have some sort of ruling that creates a responsibility and an accountability for global climate change, I think is a really positive way to go and let’s hope it grows. And thinking of the plastic, we’ve got the microplastics here and the EcoCentre is doing some amazing work in that area. Again, Cocos Keeling Islands, it’s like the nightmare that you see occasionally in your TV, pristine beaches that are covered in plastic thongs and shoes and bottles.
So we’ve got the microplastics and the macroplastics and we need to really start thinking about how do we address this on a global way and every all the little bits like the EcoCentre and the Citizen Science all add up to a greater knowledge of the abuse as Jan said that we’re doing and that we need to take responsibility for. So, go Germany! And let’s hope Australia can go down that path too.
Mik:
On that topic of plastic, I often think, why is it again that now that we know that in the laboratories, a new type of eco-plastic has been invented? We know how to create plastic that can disappear once it gets out in nature. After two weeks, it’s gone – just like a leaf that falls from a tree. Now, why isn’t it that governments say, ‘Wow, this is what we need!’ ? That is the real… getting to the root of the problem, which is not just to go around and pick up the plastic, but to actually stop it at the source. And isn’t it the same with fossil fuels? If you think about it, it’s exactly the same problem! We need to stop it at the source. We can’t go about with this and that solution trying to offset, to mitigate the problem. We need to actually get to the source of things.
Jan:
I think that’s absolutely right. It is critical that we as citizens take action to tell our governments, our representatives, that this is not okay. And it’s important that we also engage with business to do the same. And there are actions we can take in terms of what we buy and what we use. And so as citizens, collectively, we can be very powerful.
And I think that’s the message – it is that there isn’t a passivity. We have a wonderful range of volunteers who work at the EcoCentre across a whole lot of activities, not because they’re getting paid, but because they’re committed. We know that with the kids that we work with at schools, they care about what’s going to happen to their world because it’s their future. So there is a real citizen commitment. What we do at the EcoCentre is harness that as a group. And so to give a positive message about we can change things and we have to do it quite soon. And so the logging that happens at business and government becomes critical in that process.
Mik:
It sounds to me, you would probably agree, both Deborah and Jan, that we need more ecocentres. Maybe that is the way forward?
Deborah:
Yeah, I think 100 per cent!.
Jan:
I think that’s right, but in fact what we can do, and there are models, there could be a model like the EcoCentre, where we could have, if you like, satellites or hubs in other parts mobilising people. And remember there’s a lot of citizen work being done and a lot of great organisations we partner with and have affiliates with. So work is being done, it’s that coordination and voice. And remember that it’s often the finances that restrict individuals and organisations from being able to do more. And that’s probably where business has greater advantage because they have greater resources. So I guess part of this, the film is, it’s a nice intersection of the work we do, the generosity of an international filmmaker, and us needing resources to do more of what we do. So it sort of comes together and that’s why we hope people will come and support it as a community event.
Colin:
Good Jan, now what is the date again, what is the time and what is the cost? And how long will the season last?
Jan:
Thank you very much for that and that’s the sort of information I will and should have. Unfortunately at this stage, Colin, it’s a one night premiere at the Astor only. It is on the Wednesday the 25th of June at 7pm. You can go onto the EcoCentre website and book your tickets on there.
Colin:
What’s the EcoSense’s website?
Jan:
Well, just is, if you just go on and go “Port Phillip EcoCentre”, it will come up straight away. If to do that search on your search engine. And it’s really… it will be a fun night. There will be other information there for people. The Astor is a really lovely theatre, if you haven’t been there. And it will have just a nice community feel, which is about that solidarity. Because if we come together and connect, the we know what can be achieved because we’ve seen great things happen when we mobilise together.
. . .
SONG (at 25:56)
“What Story Will We Tell”
The old world is dying
A new one is being born
not from algorithms, but from the human heart
We are the ancestors of what comes next
What story will we choose to tell?
[Verse 1]
We stood at the edge of a broken age
Systems cracking like ancient ice
Smoke on the skyline, silence in soil
Still we carried seeds inside
[Chorus]
Tell me: What story will we tell?
Of how we faced the dark and stayed awake
Of how we broke the spell
And let the Earth reshape our fate
[Verse 2]
Not in steel, not in code alone
But in rivers we relearned to flow
In gardens grown where wounds had bled
In dreams we dared, and truths we said
[Chorus]
So tell me: What story will we tell?
Will we walk through fire with open hands?
Or build new songs from shattered bells
A world reborn, not ruled by plans?
[Bridge]
This is not the end
This is the invitation
To co-create, to compost pain
To find the sacred in relation
To weave a civilisation
That listens
That learns
That loves
And turns…
[Verse 3]
From greed to grace
From walls to wells
From fear to fierce compassion
From conquest to connection
[Chorus]
Tell me: What story will we tell?
The page is blank, the hour is near
Not heroes – just humans
Becoming clear
[Outro]
What story will we choose to tell?
. . .
Spoken statement narrated by Alistair, written by Mik Aidt:
We are gently weaving the threads of a transformation.
A different kind of civilisation.
One that listens.
One that learns.
One that gives.
And find security and love in return
. . .
Mik: (at 29:19)
We’re talking with Jan Cossar, who is the president of Port Phillip EcoCentre, and Deborah Sykes. And we’re talking about this film premiere next Wednesday. But what we haven’t talked about yet is your own relationship to nature, because I think that’s an inspiring story always to hear. What got you so interested that you began to work for an ecocentre and are spending all your time – probably – in advocating for and building up that idea? Deborah? What’s your relationship to nature?
Deborah:
My relationship to nature is just being. It’s the place that I feel good. If I can walk along the beach or in a park or see a tree or just feel the wind, I feel great. So nature is all around me and I love it and I have this urge to protect it, to keep it as beautiful as it is.
Jan:
I come from a farming family. My family are wheat and sheep farmers in Wimramallee in Victoria. We had some of the most beautiful skyscapes in the world. The sunsets are magnificent and the early morning and late afternoon are sort of in my blood. I worked internationally in international aid and development in the Pacific and in Asia for many years and can I say that the environmental destruction that is happening for particularly as Deb pointed out things that are happening in terms of rising sea levels in the Pacific, it breaks my heart and we have a collective responsibility.
Both my kids are involved in environmental organisations – that is their job, and they influence me profoundly. So, ‘Think globally act locally’ did full circle with the EcoCentre because I think that you really can, although it’s at that community level, that’s when the rubber hits the road, and we can influence and educate people, mobilise people to take action and then lobby to power about what is possible.
So it’s the combination of those things to want to be able to contribute in some way to to leave it a bit better, if you know what I mean. So that’s sort of my my commitment to it, and I have to say that Deb is certainly from her work, she’s been involved in really educating us around a whole lot of sustainability over the last few years, given the work she’s been doing on electrification etc. So it’s being inspired by others like her to take action.
Mik:
Deb, what’s that work with electrification?
Deb:
So it started, my journey started a little while ago. I’ve always been very keen on leaving the smallest footprint I ever can. That led us to electrify our house totally about five years ago. And in doing that, what I came across was this huge grassroots need of people to connect, just to be able to ask from a friend or a neighbor, me, you know, how did you do that stove? What was it like getting an EV? Tell me about your solar panels.
So beginning to understand that grassroots need of a trusted advisor, we started up a community led group called Electrify Southside at the beginning of the year. And it’s just snowballed. People really are walking with their feet.
We’ve got an expo at the St Kilda Town Hall coming up on the 22nd, this coming Sunday, and it’s all day and we have panels of experts talking about what it’s like to have an EV, what it’s like to put solar on your roof, what are the issues and challenges with electrifying apartments.
People have been wanting to set up their stalls to advertise what they’re doing and connect. We’ve got all levels of government backing us and assisting us. And we think we’re going to get about a thousand people through the door, which to me is amazing and just demonstrates the need out there for just practical, easy hand-holding of change because change is always hard but I think it’s easier when you have that grassroots connection and I must say all my colleagues, all the volunteers who are helping me organise this is heartwarming. People are out there amazing and as Jan says it’s the community, it’s all of us doing it together and I’m quite humbled by the energy that’s happening so the expo is going to be fantastic – and I’m going to lie down and rest at the end of it.
Jan:
No you are not!
Mik:
So what I’m hearing is that you’re saying, ‘Yes, relationship to nature is important, but…’ actually when it comes down to promoting it and to getting people, you could say, mobilised around that, you need community, you need that relationship to your neighbours and each other.
Deborah:
And in addition, I think that there is, it’s quite frightening, climate change, and it’s daunting, the lack of action from our governments. And I think for people to actually have a practical thing that they can do, something that’s positive and that they feel they can take action on, has really, really resonated with people.
And the reality is, as Jan said, the local community action actually is the underpinning. And if enough of us do it, we influence government and big picture legislation. So I believe that that empowerment of individuals in the community is really, really strong.
Colin:
We’re getting leadership, it strikes me, Deborah and Jan… We’re getting leadership from the people rather than from our governments at all levels. In this regard, I’m really talking about the fact that we are fitting solar panels to our roofs, we are fitting batteries, and we are changing the need and the generation of electricity throughout Australia without planning from our government.
Our governments are quite surprised to suddenly find that there isn’t the same necessity to create a new power station because there are so many solar panels on the roof, because the people are leading the governments. The governments are still in thrall of the fossil fuel industry.
Jan:
Yes, I agree. And you did point out something. It is moving and happening. Australia has a huge percentage of people who are taking up solar panels. Unfortunately, it is in an uncoordinated way because the government so far really hasn’t set down a long-term goal and a long-term strategy of how we’re going to achieve the best possible outcome. So it’s a little bit haphazard, but we’re moving.
Colin:
Yeah, at all levels. Our governments only ever work on three years. On the next election cycle, we haven’t got anybody with a vision that’s looking for the next decade. And that’s really where we fall over when it comes to environmental laws.
Deb:
In an ideal world, it would be de-politicised and bipartisan because we’re all in it together no matter what happens and if we don’t get it right, there’ll be no government.
Colin:
Really, ideally, the environmental laws shouldn’t be even set by our local government or our state government or even our national government. They should be set by the United Nations because we’re talking about a worldwide emergency. The world needs to stop burning fossil fuels and start looking for alternatives. And that should be directed by the United Nations, who should direct every country. It’s got to be at the top, but we’re getting nothing like that in any way happening. Is any of this illustrated by the film that you’re… I mean, the whole thing about today’s show is that we’re talking about the new French film, which is being premiered in St Kilda next week. Is any of that… what should we say… dilemma, addressed by the film or is the film merely about nature and the way that we have grown?
Jan:
The film points to these issues, but it’s not overtly political, but it certainly raises the concept that we need to have a united vision across the one globe that we have.
. . .
SONG
‘EV Smile’ – excerpt 1
[Verse 1]
I glide out the driveway – smooth and silent
Kids wave, magpies sing
I’m not choking my kids with exhaust anymore
When I roll down my windown, I can hear the trees breathing
Pull up at the lights. Waiting for green
Arm out the window, and the EV smile
While the SUV next to me’s guzzlin’ dollars every mile
I drive for free – by clean powers of the sky
[Chorus]
My sunshine powered car
Goodbye petrol, I for one won’t miss you!
My sunshine powered car
My car runs on sunshine, no smoke, no roar
My sunshine powered car
Cutting the carbon, while saving money too
My sunshine powered car
The E.V. joy – that’s what we’re doing it for
[Verse 2]
Cost of living’s up, I feel it as too
But I don’t feel it at the bowser
I skipped that queue
Charge at home, off my rooftop
While I make a cup of tea
It’s freedom – not just for the rich
But for people like me
[Funky Breakdown]
Through the forest – windows down
Can hear the kookaburras laughin’
No drone of diesel, just that smell of life
And I’m still tappin’ into the sun
[Bridge]
No oil changes! (None.)
No tailpipe tax! (Nope.)
No engine heat, no huge repair bills!
This is the life! I’ve got the E.V. smile.
[Chorus]
My sunshine powered car
Goodbye petrol, I for one won’t miss you!
My sunshine powered car
My car runs on sunshine, no smoke, no roar
. . .
Deborah:
Colin, you were talking about the EV uptake in Norway and that’s really exciting. I have an EV, I’ve had it for about five years and the most common question I am asked is related to range anxiety. And in Australia we do actually have quite long distances. However, the infrastructure of charging stations across rural areas is growing and growing despite lack of government coordination.
But I was just reading an article in the Renew Economy that Newcastle has just come up with a huge policy to support EV uptake through the charging stations right across their area and they’re investing a lot of money. So it’s possible Newcastle is leading the way. And here in Port Phillip, I don’t have off-street parking. So it’s illegal to drape an electric wire across my fence to charge my car. But Port Phillips City Council did run a small pilot of pop-up curb charges that are personally owned. And I was lucky enough to be on that trial.
We need more innovative things like that, because that’s really helped me use my car, use my solar panels to charge my car during the day. It’s the way forward and we need more ideas and support from all levels of government.
Colin:
Yes, I share your experience in that people ask me about the EV that I drive, but I have a different experience from you in that I do have off-street parking. I only charge my car when the sun’s shining or during the daytime when the panels are done. But I tell everybody it runs on sunshine and we’ve had our little leaf… We’ve got a leaf that runs on sunshine and doesn’t fall in the autumn.
The problem, yes, the range anxiety is there for me, but what I have now is I’ve built a system of friends and relatives that if I need to take a trip to Canberra or to Newcastle, if I needed to, certainly if I need to go to Adelaide, I will say to one of my daughters or to one of my friends, do you fancy driving around in the electric car for the weekend and can’t borrow yours? Because I simply don’t trust the rollout of charging stations, certainly along the Hume Highway. Because, you know as well as I do that most of the charging stations are in supermarkets and there aren’t too many supermarkets up the Hume. Somehow or another, it didn’t occur to anybody that they ought to put charging stations in service stations. It seems ridiculous to me that virtually all of them are tucked away in stadiums or supermarket car parks.
Mik:
Can I just report from – certainly – from Denmark that almost every petrol station in Denmark now has EV chargers. So you’re right: it is ridiculous.
Colin:
It would be sensible to bring in a law which says you can’t start a new service station without having charging spaces. It would be quite easy for our
Mik:
Everything, it seems like everything we talk about falls back on legislation and law, doesn’t it? That’s really where things begin. And it’s great to see an ecocentre here raising awareness around that, and also getting people together, like we talked about: the connection. Even what we do here in The Sustainable Hour is we connect people who are on the right track, but maybe needs that extra… you could say, courage that it takes and that comes from being connected and hearing that other people are doing it. Sharing our stories is so important.
Colin:
As a final thing, have to say that our next door neighbour has bought an EV. But he doesn’t really quite understand the system. I have to take him in hands occasionally and say, ‘Look, you’ve got panels. You don’t have to leave your car charging on all night where you’re paying for electricity that’s coming from Gippsland. You can charge it during the day’ – but he leaves it outside during the day and puts it on charge at night. It’s illogical, I mean: Good sense doesn’t come with EVs, I’ve found.
. . .
SONG
‘EV Smile’ – excerpt 2:
[Chorus]
I’ve got the EV Smile
My sunshine powered car
Goodbye petrol, I for one won’t miss you!
My sunshine powered car
My car runs on sunshine, no smoke, no roar
My sunshine powered car
Cutting the carbon, while saving money too
My sunshine powered car
That’s the EV joy – that’s what we’re doing it for
[Outro]
This car runs on sunshine
Clean. Calm. Clever.
I’m cruisin’ past the servo signs
Like, “nah, not ever!”
So come to Torquay, take a spin
Talk myths, ride bikes, get the E.V. grin
The future’s here – keys in hand
Let’s drive it together, across this land
No fumes. No fuss. No fortune required.
Just sunshine – and the will to do the right thing.
Let’s move.
It works out that it’s actually cheaper for us, and it makes sense.
. . .
Jan:
I think the essence of what we’ve been talking about today is a deep commitment by many people to want to make change. And that we at the EcoCentre are inviting people to come and connect and to be part of an environmental movement. And that can be from planting out the areas of nature, to build biodiversity, and to support our native birds. It can be learning about how to recycle and to reduce what it is that we use. It can be about how we take action at a local or a larger level to influence the lawmakers.
And as Deb has been pointing out, to be able to make changes in your life, to be able to understand how to electrify your homes, how to utilise an EV car that’s effective, and really organisations like the EcoCentre – and Deb and I work together – and we are supporting Southside in this electrification initiative. So it’s actually about collective action and it is the thing that keeps us going that we know that people want to make change.
And so we have to continue to influence those who have power, but also to shift business. Because remember, they are the ones who are gaining financially from keeping things as they are. And so that’s the other part of the equation. We mustn’t always be just focused on government, but also business – and the power that they have to keep things entrenched in the systems that currently exist. So collective action and us working with business to say, ‘We don’t want this anymore. We need a different model.’
Jingle
Mik: (at 49:01)
That’s all we could fit into one eco-version of The Sustainable Hour. Thank you very much to Deborah Sykes and Jan Cossar from the Port Phillip EcoCentre. Now Deborah, do you have a last word to our listeners?
Deborah:
My last word to our listeners is: be brave, be strong, do little bits all the time to achieve change and to keep in mind that this is our world. Change is frightening but we can go there, and things like an expo, that holds your hand and allow you to make informed decisions is the way to go.
Mik:
And Jan?
Jan:
Yes, look, I’d urge people to come to the Southside Electrification Expo on the 22nd at the St Kilda Town Hall. I’d urge people to come to the EcoCentre ‘Nature’ movie at the Astor on the 25th of June. It’s supporting environmental organisations, it’s supporting the change, and connecting people, as is the electrification expo. We’re all in this together, so let’s all contribute and respect, honour and enjoy our natural world – and live in harmony with it. Thank you.
Mik:
Be strong, be brave. We always end The Sustainable Hour with a ‘be…’ something. I think I maybe have an innovative one – what about: ‘Be ECOnnected?’
. . .
SONG
‘Be Eco-nnected’
[Verse 1]
There’s a wind that knows your name
As you walk through the frozen grass
It doesn’t ask what side you’re on
Just kisses you to let you pass
[Bridge]
Down by the garden’s gate
The silence carries real truth
The Earth remembers everything
and science finally found the proof
[Chorus]
Be brave, be strong
when you feel you get neglected
On the journey you’ve begun
where the climate is protected
Be eco-nnected
[Verse 2]
Not just data in a stream
Unjust laws that fail to guard us
We need to be the change we dream
Every act and each single day… eco-nnected!
[Chorus]
Be brave, be strong
When the ground feels disconnected
Listen deep to nature’s song
There’s a voice that’s not deflected
Its eco-nnected!
[Instrumental interlude]
[Vocal interlude]
The seas are rising, the plastic flows
But action whispers where no spotlight goes
From city drain, to island shore
We hold the line, and we can still do more
[Chorus – plural]
Be brave, be strong
when our future gets neglected
On this journey we’ve begun
our children will be protected
Every step, we’ve eco-nnected
Be eco-nected
Audio statement by Deborah Sykes, Port Phillip EcoCentre:
Change is frightening but we can go there. Be brave, be strong. Change is frightening but we can go there. Do little bits all the time to achieve change and to keep in mind that this is our world.
Marvel movie clip:
How bad is it? That’s the problem, sir, we don’t know.
Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General:
Time is running out.
. . .
Linkedin post written by Timothée Parrique, Researcher in ecological economics and post-capitalist theories, narrated by Jean: (at 54:36)
I think future historians will be puzzled when they reflect on the kind of debates we’re having right now. Ecosystems are burning and we worry about the size of our GDP. This is the very opposite of a survival instinct. We are playing monopoly during a fire and we give more attention to the bills than to the flames. Every year, a new generation of politicians come to parrot the same dubious claims about how economic growth is necessary for well-being and how economic growth is disconnected from environmental pressures. It is not disconnected and economic growth is not necessary for well-being. These two political discourses are both scientifically incorrect and there is now plenty of evidence to show it is. Planetary boundaries are overshot.
This we have known for a while. What we starting to uncover is how unequal the responsibility is. According to a recent study, between 50 and 90 per cent of that breaching can be attributed to the global top 20 per cent of consumers and the whole production system that serve their material interests. I can’t, it’s not a predicament.
It’s not even a humankind problem. It’s a minority of rich people feasting through the end of the world problem. I’m getting so tired of the science blind politics that treat a global survival issue with the lens of short term electoral self interest. I’m tired of the meaningless political jargon. Competitiveness, productivity, growth, stability, decarbonisation, innovation and so on.
So much semantic hocus pocus that drown us into a false impression of complexity when the actual problem we are facing is not that complicated. The earth offers limited ecological budgets. Natural resources are necessary for well-being. Everyone deserves to live a decent life. A minority of people currently overuse their fair share of resources, which jeopardises the livelihood of a majority of others. To live well within planetary boundaries, we need to better share the resources we have. This means consuming less for the richest and at the same time consuming more for the poorest. Easy, clear, simple. And yet we’re stuck on this riddle since the 1970s. Back then, each of these affirmations was scientifically uncertain. But this is not the case anymore. What we need is a science-based politics that takes this survival problem seriously.
. . .
SONG:
‘I Heard It on The Sustainable Hour’
[Chorus]
I heard it on The Sustainable Hour
Hope’s alive, and the time is now.
Stand up, speak out, let’s build our power,
Be the difference – we know how.
[Verse 2]
They talk of profits, pipelines, and delay,
But we’ve got voices that won’t fade away.
From city streets to the coastal sand,
We’re backing leaders who take a stand.
[Pre-Chorus]
They said, “A society grows great when we plant trees in whose shade we may never sit.”
So let’s rise up, this is it.
[Chorus]
I heard it on The Sustainable Hour
Hope’s alive, and the time is now.
Stand up, speak out, let’s build our power,
Be the difference – we know how.
[Bridge]
We are the voices, we are the wave,
Lifting each other, brave and unafraid.
It’s not too late, don’t wait for someday,
Together we’ll light the way.
[Chorus]
We heard it on The Sustainable Hour
Hope’s alive, and the time is now.
Rise up, reach out, this is our power,
Be the difference – we know how!
Audio statement:
Unite in a national effort to save from destruction all that makes life itself worth living.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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
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