Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:38 — 51.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS | More

The Sustainable Hour no. 582 | Transcript | Podcast notes

In The Sustainable Hour on 18 March 2026, the conversation moves from energy realities to community action – and from climate anxiety to practical ways people can get involved.

Our guests are Jacqui Dunn and Lauren Ball from the One Planet Festival, and Tonie Field from the Degrowth Festival.

. . .

The episode opens with a sharp look at Australia’s changing energy system. For the first time, renewable energy and batteries supplied more than half of the electricity in Australia’s main grid during a quarter of the year – and electricity prices fell at the same time. The evidence is becoming clearer: wind, solar and storage are quietly pushing expensive fossil fuels out of the system and lowering power prices.

While some politicians continue defending coal and gas, the economics are shifting. Renewables have almost zero fuel costs – the sun and the wind do not send invoices – and when they enter the grid they push more expensive generators out of the market.

At the same time, climate impacts are becoming impossible to ignore. Fires, floods and cyclones across Australia are reminders that the bill for decades of fossil fuel use is now arriving.

Against that backdrop, this episode focuses on something hopeful: the growing number of grassroots initiatives where communities are coming together to respond.

. . .

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook reports on a major new study showing dramatic declines in bird populations across North America – adding to mounting evidence that climate change and human pressures are reshaping ecosystems.

He also looks at the resurgence of the massive Sun Cable project in northern Australia – and the growing demand for renewable power from energy-hungry data centres.

. . .

The heart of the episode is about people organising solutions at the community level.

The One Planet Festival – coming to Ocean Grove on 28 March – aims to help people move from climate worry to climate action. This free community festival is represented by Jacqui Dunn and Lauren Ball from Parents for Climate Bellarine.

Expect hands-on workshops, live music, local food, electric vehicles, renewable energy advice and activities for children. Around 75 businesses and community organisations are involved, with organisers expecting around 3,000 visitors.

The festival highlights community resilience – with zones dedicated to food systems, energy, wellbeing and local action.

Note that if you are interested in getting involved in the One Planet Festival 2026 you can fill in a business and community group expression of interest form. The festival is also looking for volunteers.

→ Get free tickets

. . .

Another event featured in the episode is the Degrowth Festival, taking place in Carlton in Melbourne on 22 March 2026. Organised by volunteers from the Degrowth Network, the festival explores a different economic vision – one where societies reduce energy and resource use while building stronger communities. Like the One Planet Festival admission is free. We hear from Tonie Field who is on the festival’s organising committee.

Stalls and activities will cover topics ranging from local food systems and housing to international solidarity networks, climate action groups and seed exchanges. The organisers describe it as a “do-ocracy” – a space where people come together to experiment with ways of living that prioritise relationships, cooperation and ecological limits.

→ Get free tickets

. . .

Both festivals share the same underlying message: the future will not be built by governments alone. It will be shaped by communities learning new ways of living, supporting one another and rediscovering the power of collective action.

And as the episode’s closing reflections suggest, the goal is not perfection – it is participation.

Be the difference.
Be the inspiration.
Be part of it.

. . .

SONGS

• ‘Sustainable Living’ – A joyful tribute to simplicity and everyday solutions that bring people closer together. Premiered in The Sustainable Hour no. 541.

• ‘I Heard It on The Sustainable Hour’ – Inspired by discussions from The Sustainable Hour podcast no. 537, emphasising the power of shared knowledge in driving change.

“It can be so overwhelming when you start looking at the climate issue to actually know where to place your energy. Like I did originally as well – I just was almost frozen. You become paralysed by lack of kind of direction as to where to go. And I think one of the most powerful things about the festival is that it really does bring together all of these groups that are kind of working on their little bits. And it really makes people realise that you don’t need to have all the answers and that there are people out there working on the individual problems. And when everyone kind of comes together, that’s where the real power is.”
~ Lauren Ball, festival co-organiser, Parents for Climate Bellarine

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via Apple Podcasts or Spotify

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If someone truly wants to “take back our country”, perhaps the real task is to take it back from
the misinformation that keeps Australians arguing about yesterday’s energy system.

‘Landmark moment’: Renewables’ record surge sends power prices tumbling

“Electricity prices in eastern Australia fell sharply in the final three months of last year as record-breaking contributions from renewable energy and large-scale batteries reduced the need to call on fossil fuels to plug supply gaps.

Figures from the energy market operator confirm renewables and batteries powered more than 50 per cent of the grid in the December quarter for the first time in history, crunching coal to its lowest-ever seasonal share of the mix, and gas to its lowest since 2000.”
~ The Age

The next Budget could decide Australia’s energy security

Heidi Lee Douglas, CEO of Solar Citizens, wrote in their latest newsletter:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

→ Explorations in Climate Psychology Journal, Issue 8:
Heavy weather: exploring reactionary states of mind
“This issue aims to shed a light on the reactionary mind and how we find ourselves at this juncture.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

TRANSCRIPT
of The Sustainable Hour no. 582

Antonio Guterres: (00:00)
Cooperation over chaos. We are all in this together.

Jingle: (00:15)
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.

Tony Gleeson (00:25)
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour. We’d like to acknowledge 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 on stolen land, land that was never ceded, always was and always will be First Nations land. Wadawurrung people, as in all First Nations people throughout this country, had a great affinity with the land – an affinity that we are going to have to acquire to survive the climate crisis that’s approaching. No, it’s here already. We hope that we learn to acquire the ancient wisdom that they’ve accumulated from nurturing their land and their communities for millennia before their land was stolen.

Mik Aidt: (01:29)
Most Australians I know believe in something pretty simple and straightforward, which is that if there is a cheaper, cleaner, smarter and safer way to produce energy, we should use it. But not everyone agrees. Take Senator Matt Canavan, the new leader of the National Party. He wrote on Facebook the other day that now he aims to take back our country. “Take it back”? Take it back from whom exactly? Could he be thinking of the millions of Australians who love their renewables because they have already installed solar panels on their own roofs? Or the farmers who have secured their income by hosting wind turbines on their land? Or is he thinking of the scientists warning us that the climate system is approaching dangerous thresholds? Like Canavan – what Trump is doing in the United States – is defending fossil fuels.

The thing is, if you look at what’s actually happening in Australia’s energy system right now, defending fossil fuels is actually beginning to look more and more foolish. Just a few weeks ago, the Australian energy market operator confirmed something historic. For the first time ever, renewable energy and batteries supplied more than half of the electricity in Australia’s main grid during a quarter of the year. More than half.

And surprise-surprise, what happened at the same time: Electricity prices fell sharply.

Coal, Mr Canavan Coal-Lover, dropped to its lowest seasonal share ever recorded. Gas fell to its lowest level since year 2000. Or to put it another way and very simply so even Matt Canavan ought to understand it: More renewables which means less fossil fuel generation means lower power prices.

That’s not theory or ideology, that’s economy. That’s what happened here in Australia in the last quarter last year. So Canavan and a whole gang of other politicians in parliament can defend these fossil fuels all you want. It’s not going to change reality. Solar and wind has almost zero fuel costs. The sun doesn’t send invoices, Matt! So when the clean, green, renewable energy enters the grid, it pushes expensive fossil fuel generators out of the market, which means cheaper power for all of us.

But of course – and I’m sorry about that, Matt – less profit for your mates in the coal industry. And on top of that, meanwhile, while we’re here in Australia, we have to listen to all this, honestly, crap from politicians defending fossil fuels, meanwhile the rest of the world is moving on fast.

The European Union has already introduced a carbon tariff. That means that imports produced with high emissions energy, as they are right now in Australia, are going to be taxed. So when we talk economy, the real economic advantage for Australian manufacturers, for instance in steel production, which Matt Canavan says on Facebook that he “loves the smell of steel in the morning”. Well, if you have cheap renewable power, not expensive fossil fuels, then you are able to sell it globally for two reasons:

1) Because you’re not taxed by this carbon tariff and 2) Because it’s simply cheaper to produce.

On top of that, there’s the part that Mr Matt Canavan as well as Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor, and so on, what they don’t want to talk about is… the climate.

And let me just translate – what does it mean, “the climate”? This summer we saw hundreds of thousands of hectares burned in Victoria. We saw cyclones, floods, billions of dollars in damage. That’s not because of some random accident. These are caused by the CO2 that’s being belched into our atmosphere. You could say: the bill arriving for decades of our burning of coal, oil and gas. Every ton of carbon dioxide we release when we burn this coal, oil and gas, it stays in the atmosphere for centuries. And every delay in cutting emissions is just pushing the climate system further out of control.

So when Matt Canavan is talking about “taking back our country”, I would say the real question is when will we take our country back from this misinformation that keeps Australia arguing about yesterday’s outdated energy system, while the rest of the world is already fully engaged in building new systems for the future?

I can’t believe we’re still talking about this myth that renewable energy is going to make electricity more expensive. Here in Victoria, the opposite is starting to show up in people’s power bills.

Our state energy regulator has just lowered the benchmark electricity price for the coming year. For an average household, that means $50 less a year. For small businesses, that could be $170 less per year. And yes, that’s not a fortune yet, but it shows how the system works.

Renewables now supply half of Victoria’s electricity. And because wind and solar have very low operating costs, they push the wholesale electricity prices down. Over the past year, Victoria has recorded some of the lowest wholesale power prices in the entire national electricity market.

While Senator Matt Canavan’s home state, Queensland, still relies heavily on coal and electricity there is expensive, we here in Victoria generate twice as much electricity from renewables than the Queenslanders do. And that’s in spite of the fact that Queensland has some of the best solar resources in the world.

So, in short, the evidence is pointing in exactly the opposite direction of this political story that Matt Canavan, and Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson, Angus, and so on, are trying to sell us. Renewables are not failing. They are quietly making electricity cheaper. And I’ll repeat that piece of information for those who come after us: Renewables are not failing. No, they are making electricity cheaper.

Chew on it, accept it, and then let’s get busy building some more. Let’s get on with it!

Today in The Sustainable Hour, we are in the festival mood. We are going to be hearing from two renewables sustainability and degrowth festivals coming up soon. But first, of course, it’s time for the weekly global outlook delivered by our former News Corp reporter, now our global reporter Colin Mockett OAM.

. . .

COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK (08:35)
Thank you, Mik, and my round up this week begins in the United States, but not with the storms and typhoons that have lashed mid-western states from Ohio to Pennsylvania through to Michigan, and all of this week before the recognised typhoon season is due to start in the U.S..

No, I want to highlight a new study that was published in Nature magazine that showed that American bird life is in dramatic decline. The research analysed data from 1987 to 2021 and it found overall drops in bird populations across the board, every flock, in every species in the US. It showed the sharpest declines to be in America’s warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change is the most likely factor.

The study showed only correlations with human activity and temperatures, not causation. It doesn’t and it can’t factor in circumstances that may be affecting birds along the migratory routes or while they are overwintering in distant destinations. But it does add to a growing body of evidence showing that the US birds are not in a good place and bird life is one of the most and best measured studies of animals on Earth.

They’re seen as being sentinels for the health of other species, including humans. Whatever the specific drivers, accelerating losses make sense given society’s focus on economic growth, which often comes at a cost of the natural world, said Peter P. Marra, ornithologist and dean at Georgetown University who specialises in bird populations.

“The American dream turns into the American nightmare when we look at what we’re doing to biodiversity and systems that we depend on as humans,” he said. In 2019, Dr. Marra published landmark findings that the number of birds in the United States and Canada had fallen by 2.9 billion or 29 per cent since 1970.

The current study is built on that same data sources, largely in the North American Breeding Society survey, which happens annually led by the United States Geological Survey. It covers 1,033 routes that compares annual count of over 260 bird species. The team decided to widen the analysis that they had and they used statistical modelling to look for associations such as fertilisers and pesticide use and expanding areas of crop land.

Many scientists believe that the trouble in the insect world where declines are much harder to quantify is behind the decline of bird numbers. But birds also face lots of other pressures from cats or flying into clear glass windows during migration or habitat loss, the study noted. There was not one instance mentioned of a bird flying into a wind turbine, which I found quite interesting.

The report, which used advanced computer technology to crunch numbers from millions of documents, shows how AI is moving into science. And ironically, it also highlighted how the new data banks which power AI are themselves likely to become part of the problem. Because it brings us now to Australia and Mike Cannon-Brooks, who – if you remember – in 2019, partnered with another billionaire environmentalist in Andrew Forrest, and they came up with the Sun Cable project. That’s a 10 gigawatt Northern Territory solar farm that would provide electricity to Singapore using a giant undersea cable. In 2023, the project stumbled and Andrew Forest pulled out.

But fast forward to now and the project has re-emerged. The plan is still ongoing, but instead of exporting electricity to Singapore, it’s now looking at using the massive solar plant to power data centres. We are in active discussions with a range of potential off-takers across the full footprint of the project, including data centre customers. A Sun Cable spokesperson was quoted in the trade paper Renew Energy. “Our market engagement over the past 18 months demonstrates that the energy hungry digital sector will be one of the first moves in the transition to large scale renewable power supply”, the statement said.

The assumption was that the data centres would be built close to the power source in Australia’s Northern Territory, which at present is under widespread flooding. The town of Katherine in the Northern Territory was last week cut off by floodplains. And environmentalists are warning that if huge fields of solar panels and wind harvesters servicing the needs of new data centres rather than displaced fossil fuels in Asia’s electricity grids. At best, it will have no real climate benefit. At worst, it will end up as another cause of climate change.

Now that would happen if the solar project has delays or faults, because the experience of American data centres is that the industry then defaults to getting their huge thirst for power from massive new fossil gas-powered turbines. So they may well be on solar to start with, but when things go wrong, they fire up the gas.

So finally to Gloucestershire in England, the news of the world’s only carbon neutral sports team, Forest Green Rovers, which now markets itself as football’s greenest team.

At the weekend the vegan Rovers beat Aldershop 2-1 and moved up to fifth position on their ladder, seven points behind the promotion position. But the wind breaks the spell of four draws and a loss so things could be getting better because we’re coming towards the pointy end of the season. The competition closes traditionally on the first weekend in May.

The Forest Green Rovers women’s team drew 2-2 with Gloucester City in a double header on the same day. The women sit in third position on their ladder, but they’re much more likely to be promoted because they’ve played two fewer games than the leaders Torquay and five fewer than the second-place Sherbourne women.

So that means when they pick up on the games, they’ve only got to win one or two of them and they are promoted. And that happy note ends our round-up for the week.

. . .

Jingle: (16:38)
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.

Tony: (16:46)
Our first guests today are two women who are part of the organising committee for the One Planet Festival that’s going to be held later this month in Ocean Grove. So we’ve got Lauren Ball and Jacqui Dunn. Thank you both for coming on. What inspired you two to get involved in this festival? It’s the second time, I understand, second time it’s being held, and there’s a rumour around that it’s going to be bigger and better than the last time, first time. Yeah, so what inspired you to be involved?

Lauren Ball:
Do you want to start, Jacqui, or do you…?

Jacqui Dunn: (17:30)
Yeah, sure. I have been active in climate for a number of reasons, but predominantly because I have a daughter and I really want to make sure that her future is safe and secure. And I feel like as parents, all want, all we want for our kids is to have a safe and healthy life. And I personally feel like acting on climate is a really big part of that. Bringing together this festival is a really great initiative because it brings together community and it tries to move people that might be worried about climate but don’t necessarily know where to start in moving from worried to active.

So bringing those people along the journey and connecting them with community groups and organisations that are already active in the space. It makes the transition from worried to active really easy for them because the simple solutions that they can fit into their everyday busy lives as parents are already there.

So it’s not just for parents either as well, it’s for everybody in our community to get together and connect.

Lauren: (18:36)
I think for me, just following on from what Jacqui said, it can be so overwhelming when you start looking at the climate issue to actually know where to place your energy. And a lot of people, I think… Like I did originally as well, I just was almost frozen. You become paralysed by lack of kind of direction as to where to go. And I think one of the most powerful things about the festival is that it really does bring together all of these groups that are kind of working on their little bits. And it really makes people realise that you don’t need to have all the answers and that there are people out there working on the individual problems. And when everyone kind of comes together, that’s where the real power is. And I think we see that at the festival.

Colin: (19:25)
Well, that is excellent, thank you! That’s a great intro. But first up, now what I’d like to know is: what dates the festival is on, where it is, how you book and what to expect if we choose to go there, or if our listeners choose to go there. So first up, what are the dates, please?

Jacqui: (19:45)
So the festival is on the 28th of March. It’s in Ocean Grove, so it will be in the Ocean Grove Park, so nice and central to the area. If people want to book their tickets, we’re really encouraging people to go online and actually reserve tickets early. So they just go online to www.oneplanetfest.com.au and you can book a place there.

We are accepting walk-ins on the day, but it just kind of helps us as organisers to manage the day and know how many people we’ve got in, because we do actually have maximum numbers as well for the park. And it’s free.

Colin: (20:22)
What’s the cost?

Lauren: (20:27)
We’re encouraging people to sign up… We will definitely have people walking in on the day and we are expecting that too. But yeah, it does just help us kind of manage the numbers a little bit. But yeah, it’s absolutely free.

Colin: (20:42)
That also helps for planning for next year too, if you know how many people you’re going to be expecting.

Lauren: (20:48)
Yes, exactly. And as far as the festival on the day, we’ve got, as we said, bigger and better this time round. But we’ve actually broken the festival down into lots of different zones as well this time. So we’ve got a focus on local food and growing, we’ve got a focus on energy and resilience, focus on community and wellbeing as well.

Every different zone will have something for the kids as well as a dedicated children’s zone too. So you’d expect a lot of hands-on activities, a lot of workshops, speakers, we’ve got live entertainment as well, there’ll be food, drinks, so something for everyone definitely, but a good family day out.

Colin: (21:30)
What’s the live entertainment?

Lauren: (21:33)
The live entertainment, we actually have Bob Evans coming along to headline, which we’re all very excited about. And then we have a lineup of local artists as well and some fantastic local children from the schools in the area as well coming along to do some songs too. So yeah, there’ll be a fantastic mix.

Colin: (21:53)
And I’m thinking that the food is not going to be overpriced whirly potato and chicken? It’s going to be sustainable, is it?

Lauren: (22:03)
I don’t want to say anything about the potato people because they have their place. There’s no potatoes. We do have local growers from the area who will be doing some amazing fresh food and there’ll be a lot of vegan options as well and plant-based options but there are also options that the children might like as well, like just different tastes. So we’ve kind of tried to cater for all groups there as well.

Tony: (22:31)
What events or programs are you most, both of you, most looking forward to.

Jacqui: (22:38)
So I’m really looking forward to the involvement that we’ve got with the schools. We’ve got five schools involved in the festival this year, which is really exciting. So there’s some really fabulous artworks being done by the kids from Star of the Sea and Ocean Grove and St Aloysius in Queenscliff. They’ve come together to collaborate on a project around the local bat population and their danger that climate change and all the things we’re doing to their environment.

So those two schools are collaborating on a project around the local bat population and the work that the wonderful wildlife rescue people are doing around that. So there’ll be a massive artwork around that and there’ll be some bat experts to come and talk to. We’ve also got a primary school from Queenscliff coming along to do some indigenous songs on the main stage.

The Bellarine Secondary Kids, as you know they’ve got an amazing music program at that school so there’s a couple of bands coming from them. And there’s an art exhibition as well from the kids at Star of the Sea. So really great stuff coming from the kids.

Lauren: (23:46)
And also in the energy and resilience zone, we’ve got, it’s a really good zone if people are kind of having questions about how to switch over to electricity as well and don’t really know where they stand with solar and all of the benefits that are currently out there. It’s a really good place for people to come and actually be able to talk to all of the different businesses that are involved in this too and get some real answers on the day, which I think for people, because sometimes it involves many, many conversations and phone calls if you’re trying to get to the answer. So I think that’ll be really helpful for a lot of people too.

Colin: (24:21)
Have you got somebody there from EVs? Have you got Geelong Sustainability there?

Lauren: (24:27)
We have Geelong Sustainability! Actually they are managing the energy and resilience zone with us this year so they will be a key part of it. We’ve also got EVs on display as well. I’m very excited the Deakin team will actually be bringing their fully solar car that they raced across Australia and they’re going to have that on display which will be fantastic. So I’m excited to see that and then we’ve also got a company that actually converts old classic cars into electric and they’re going to have one of these on display as well.

Colin: (25:01)
I would imagine that now would be a good time to strike. Now with the price of petrol rocketing because of the Iran conflict, now would be an excellent time to say, hey, you can cut your power bills completely if you put panels on the roof and recharge your car when the sun’s shining. Because that’s what some of us do. And we don’t pay power bills or natural bills.

Lauren: (25:32)
Yeah, 100 per cent! We’ve actually haven’t got petrol down the road anymore. So we’ve got a hybrid at the moment. We haven’t been able to go fully electric, but I’m going to be plugging that in every night and making sure we’re running on fully electric at the moment.

Colin: (25:47)
So what’s the hours? Because it’s only on for the one day. What time can people roll up to not miss anything and what time do you expect to finish?

Jacqui: (25:57)
So the festival starts at 11 o’clock with a Welcome to Country by the amazing Karina Eccles and it’s completed at about 5pm. So Bob Evans from Jebediah will be completing the set at 5pm, hopefully on time.

Lauren: (26:12)
Yeah, so you have to make sure you are there and you stay around till the end of it, definitely.

Colin: (26:17.198)
And we’ll go to the bats in Ocean Grove. I know we’ve got a colony in Eastern Gardens in Geelong, but I didn’t realise there was another one in Ocean Grove.

Jacqui: (26:27)
I am actually not sure of the answer to that, but I do see them every night when I go out in the garden. I often see microbats and sometimes larger bats as well.

Colin: (26:36)
Yeah, they might be Geelong ones, you know.

Jacqui: (26:41)
They might be. But you can certainly come along to the festival and speak to the experts in the back camp and they will be able to tell you the answer to that question.

Colin: (26:52)
I’m interested in what it means to you too to be involved in the day. Are you surprising yourself on what you’re doing, the level of your involvement?

Lauren: (27:06)
Yeah, definitely. I only joined Parents for Climate about three years ago when I moved down to Geelong and I’d never really been involved actively in one group. I’ve had a bit of a background in events, so I’ve always enjoyed doing events and organising events, but it was lovely to be able to actually join the group and kind of bring some of that expertise to the Parents for Climate local group as well.

As far as the festival, I think it’s just, you never think that, like, we organised all of these little kind of community activities and something, but you never really think that you’re going to be able to impact that many people at one time. And I think that’s one of the most exciting things about the festival is the last one we had around 1,800 people on the day whereas this time we’re expecting around 3,000.
And it’s really just that energy, when it all comes together and the buzz about the event is just incredible. So it’s a really inspiring thing to be part of as well. And it does feel like all the hard work has paid off when you see everyone there and everyone engaging with the community groups and businesses there as well. It’s an exciting thing to be a part of.

Jacqui: (28:22)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’ve been acting on climate since I was in my 20s in various ways at work as a nurse. But I guess this is a bit like nursing as well. We’re nursing the environment as well. And I know as a nurse that when my patients are active, around their own health when they’re looking after themselves and they believe that they’ve got some influence over their own health and they actually recover more quickly.

You can draw a parallel there with people who are active on climate as well. When we’re worried about something and we act on it, we actually can overcome the anxiety around it and feel that we’re actually making a difference and that’s how I feel when I’m acting on climate.

And when I’m taking part in these really positive events that we plan to prepare for climate change.

Colin: (29:11)
Hey look, I hate to drag politics into it, but this is an election year and there’s just been an election by-election win in the UK where the Greens got up and beat everybody, including the far-right candidates from Reform. Have you got any political or council people coming along? interested in talking to people on One Planet.

Jacqui: (29:44)
Well, Parents for Climate are non-partisan so we hope that all different parties will come together and act on climate because it’s not a political issue. But yeah, we’ve invited all the local politicians so we’re hoping that a few of them will turn up on the day.

Colin: (29:59)
Well, reckon that they would be bearing in mind that it is now, we’re into an official election year and this is a time when they like to set up stalls and be seen. But the title of your festival, One Planet, it does bring in the idea that we’re all together and it’s not a split community, but you and I know that we really are a split community between those who drive electric vehicles and those who choose to drive rams, big black utes, to drop the kids off to school. So yes, in some ways I do hope that you manage to get one planet and everybody pulling in the same direction because we’re certainly not that way now.

Jacqui: (30:52)
You bring up a really great point actually. I always get really frustrated by people using disposable coffee cups. That’s my big bugbear and obviously yours is giant utes that people have. I know that everybody’s on a different space, in a different part of the journey towards environmental sustainability. That’s my hope anyway. And I think that we just have to give them a little push, you know, and give them an easy way to become environmentally active. And that’s what the aim of the festival is. Come on in – see someone that’s an expert in this space and you can be active on climate as well. And it’s fun!

Lauren: (31:28)
Because I think if sometimes you tell people they need to give up the ram or they need to give up the meat and do all the things at once, some people definitely dig their heels in too. Whereas coming in and going, look, you don’t have to be changing everything. We understand it’s a slow process, but maybe if they take one or two things away on the day and just go, actually, I can do that, then that would mean the festival’s been a success.

Colin: (31:52)
We live in a 1950s house, a weatherboard house in Hammond Heights, west of Geelong. And it took us a year to move away from gas because we had gas heating, had gas hot water heating, we had gas cooking. And we did it one step at a time, but in the end of the year, by the end of the year, by February 2022.

We no longer use any gas at all and at that time also we were no longer using petrol either. And we’re fully powered by the units on our roof and the battery. So it can be done and it needn’t necessarily be all done at once, or at one expense because it was very easy when you spread it over a year and we’ve been much better off since.

Tony:
Jackie and Lauren, I just get the impression from hearing you talk about the collaborative nature of the event. Like it’s really about, it seems like community building, where different groups that maybe haven’t worked together before are forgetting how they’re different and concentrating on how they’re similar. So what’s, yeah, what evidence, can you tell us that that’s likely to happen this year?

Lauren: (33:23)
I think we’ve kind of said that from the beginning even when we started creating the festival, like all our communication with the community groups and the businesses and the volunteers and the local area has all been about the fact this festival is not our festival, this festival is a festival for the community and without the involvement of the businesses and the community groups and the people who are helping out on the day it really can’t happen.

So 100 per cent, I’d say: community has been at that kind of heart of the festival from the very beginning. We’ve had, it’s been good to see as the kind of buzzes started around the festival, we’ve had more groups that maybe we don’t normally chat to, because occasionally when these start to, you get the same people who always work together, coming together and doing it, which is fantastic and we love that.

But it’s been really great to have kind of these businesses, or these groups that maybe haven’t been involved in the last one and haven’t really heard about what we’ve been doing, to actually start getting in contact with us and saying we’d like to be a part of it. So we’ve got 75 businesses and community groups involved. So it will be a really great kind of collaborative day.

Jacqui: (34:32)
One of the really great examples of different community groups coming together to collaborate on the festival was last week I spoke to someone at the Country Women’s Association in Ocean Grove and they got together and did a work in B and sewed 60 metres of bunting for us to use at the festival. So all made out of recycled scraps of material that they had themselves. So it’s a wonderful collaboration of lots and lots of different groups.

Colin: (34:58)
That’s lovely. Now that’s 75 different groups. How many of them are involved in sustainability and how many of them are like the CWA? Local groups that really just want to get involved with you.

Lauren: (35:15)
We’ve got a bit, we’ve definitely got a mix. I’d say we’ve really focused on getting the community groups involved as well because we know how important that support side of things is. So it’s like moving forward, there’s going to be certain things that are out of our control and there’s going to be a real need for the community to rally around each other and support each other. So that’s why we’ve kind of bought in the food systems and the community groups and all of the different aspects to just go, okay, this is how we’d like the future to look. This is kind of the ideal, but also we do need to speak about, like, the emergency services and we need to speak about what we do to support the most vulnerable in the community and all of those kinds of aspects as well.

Colin: (36:06)
Two weeks ago we had the head of the Bellarine Emergency Services on the program. She was then talking about how their services have changed and now they’re finding it more often that they are saving people from floods or clearing up from when trees have blown over in wild weather than what they were previously doing, which was looking after accidents and things like that. Climate change is coming in every area, I think you can say.

Jacqui: (36:45)
Yeah, I absolutely agree with you, Colin, and as a nurse I’ve worked in emergency departments for over 30 years in countries all around the world. And I can tell you now that there are much more children suffering from respiratory illnesses than there were when I started working. And it’s really horrifying. You were talking earlier about getting off gas in the home and that’s really one small thing that we can do to improve the health of our kids. So there’ll be doctors for the environment talking about that at the festival.

Colin: (37:14)
I mean, gas is 19th century. Not only does it blow up if you don’t watch it carefully, but it will kill you if you breathe it in and even if you go to sleep with it there and it hasn’t got a draft changing in the room, can kill you without doing anything. It’s a very highly dangerous thing and it’s totally unnecessary and it’s expensive.

It’s really only a sort of almost a tradition that you keep gas going or laziness that you think, can’t be bothered with changing. But it’s far, far cleaner and safer to switch to electricity.

Lauren: (38:01)
I think a big thing that people will hopefully discover at the festival when they speak to some of the partners too is just about that cost factor too. The cost of living pressure is obviously very much in the forefront of everyone’s mind at the moment and I know for example speaking about the UK, my in-laws in the UK are very much not really on board with what we do so much, but they have swapped across to solar and fully electric and an electric car now just because of the costs involved and they’ve realised that it is actually cheaper for them.

Jacqui: (38:36)
We don’t care why people are active on climate. We don’t care about your motivation, whether it’s your health, whether it’s your wallet, whatever it is, it’ll save the planet.

. . .

SONG
‘Sustainable Living’

[Verse 1]
Morning sun peeks through my window pane
See my neighbour planting in the rain
Trading tomatoes for her fresh-baked bread
Simple choices moving us ahead
Look around at faces that I know
Every seed we plant helps others grow
People gathering in the town today
Making changes in a brand new way

[Pre-chorus]
Hand in hand we’re building something real
Share the food, share the way we feel
Every small step leads us to believe
In the power of you and me

[Chorus]
Sustainable living, bringing us together
Sustainable living, any kind of weather
Sustainable living, changing how we move
Sustainable living, everything we do

[Verse 2]
Sally shows me how to save the rain
While Tim’s creating compost down the lane
Kids are learning how to plant and grow
Making gardens row by row by row
Someone’s sharing bikes they used to ride
Someone’s teaching skills they used to hide
Every person brings a different part
Now we’re learning how to make a start

[Bridge]
Remember when we felt so far apart?
Now look how close we are
From tiny seeds to open hearts
We’ve come so very far

[Chorus]
Sustainable living, bringing us together
Sustainable living, any kind of weather
Sustainable living, changing how we move
Sustainable living, everything we do

. . .

Tony: (41:55)
Today we’re very much dealing with festivals that are aimed to question the way we live currently and I guess investigating the possibility of living differently with the aim of contributing to a better world. So we’ve had Jacqui and Lauren from the organising committee of the One Planet Earth Festival that’s going to be held on the 28th of March in Ocean Grove.

Our next guest is Tonie Field. They are part of the organising committee for another festival, the Degrowth Festival, which is going to be held in Carlton on this coming Sunday [22 March 2026]. So Tonie, thanks for coming on.

Tonie: (42:48)
No problem, thank you for having me.

Tony: (42:50)
Okay, tell us about your festival.

Tonye: (42:53)
Great. Thank you. So it’s the Degrowth Festival 2026. We have it every year. So the festival is bigger than ever this year. Essentially, it’s about bringing a lot of different groups together to build community bonds and we really sort-of work at prefiguring the kind of world that we’re going to need in the future that is kind of truly sustainable, so to speak.

So there’s many different groups that we kind of contact through all of us. I mean, there’s only like three to five volunteers who organise this whole thing. And we’ve got about 35 to 40 stalls. So it’s really big this year.

And we’ve got everything from hands-on local community building to economic system change and vision to climate, ecological and social action groups, international solidarity and justice, which is really important to have as well, local food and housing. Those are the six big kind of groupings that we’ve got. And within each of those groupings is probably about between five and ten different stalls. So I could go into detail about some of those things. Yeah, there’s everything from bicycles to unionists for a job guarantee, the AI Safety Symposium group, SAPNA, South Asian Climate Solidarity, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Latin American Solidarity Network, and there’s a seed and seedling swap as well as part of the local food. Guerrilla Gardening Narrm, Radical Roots, Squatters Info Shop and Distro.

Colin: (45:01)
Tonie, I like the idea of all of those, but can we start with basics? What’s the date? What time?

Tonie: (45:09)
Absolutely, yeah! So it’s being held in Carlton at a place called Curtin Square. It’s in a beautiful little park. We’re in the southeast corner of that park on the 22nd of March, Sunday, and it’s pretty much starting around 12 until and goes through till about six. Yeah.

Colin: (45:33)
Is there a cost and how many people did you get last year?

Tonie: (45:37)
There’s no cost at all. So one of the things about the festival is that, well, about out of Degrowth Network is that we’re trying to really prefigure reciprocity, so relationships between people rather than transactions. So there’s a whole reason for that, but yeah. So there’s no cost and there’s no cost for stalls.

It’s very much a do-ocracy, so if you want something to happen you do it yourself and you get help and whatever so it’s not about us providing this big kind of sort of infrastructure. We’re very much volunteers and we’re doing it all in our own time and yeah it’s like a gift to the community that we’re doing this because we feel it’s really important.

Colin: (46:27)
Well, that’s great! Have you got food and music?

Tonie: (46:31)
Well, we’ve got music, that’s for sure. And one of the things about the festival that we emphasise is that we want to have as much fun doing this as possible. The whole, yeah, the underlying principle is that, you know, things are going to be tough, but we still need to carry our humanity through, you know, like we need to have time to dance, we need to have time to play music, we need to have these things that make us human. They need to be part of the picture as well. So it’s not all about austerity and, you know, serious discussions about what we’re going to do and how our lives are going to need to change and how resource use is going to have to come back in the global north and blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard about all that. And probably a lot of people don’t quite know all that. So we’d love those people to come, but it’s about having fun and learning and participating and being part of it, not just about all the stores providing.

Colin: (47:22)
That’s great, but how does it work when you don’t charge and you don’t really know who’s going to turn up?

Tonie: (47:29)
Yeah good question that’s why we have a Humanitix page.

Colin: (47:34)
And how many people did you have through last year?

Tonie: (47:38)
We had about, well last year probably a lot less than we normally do because we got rained out and we had to you had to go to Catalyst Social Centre and cram everybody in there and we probably lost people on the way, but the year before that we probably got a few hundred, but this year we were up to well over 100 registrants already, so we’re doing well I think we’ve had good publicity.

We’re certainly getting the word out there. So yeah, who knows? But just holding out for the weather and yeah.

Tony: (48:14)
Tonie, for those who don’t know, can you kind of distill the essence of degrowth? What’s it all about? There’s so much in politics and economics, so much talk about jobs and growth. I guess degrowth is a move against that.

Tonye: (48:32)
Yeah, it’s about a sort of harm reduction in a way. It’s about reducing our resource use on the planet, mainly the global north, I would say. Reducing our resource use in an equitable way, so that it’s more sustainable, essentially. The key is that it’s about reducing our energy and resource use in the global north because we are using 15 times more energy per person, speaking, roughly that, and resources. So, yeah, but that’s essentially it. And how do we do that in a capitalist growth economy? Big challenge.

Colin: (49:21)
It’s calling for a revolution really, isn’t it?

Tonie: (49:24)
Yeah, it sounds simple but you’ve got to change everything.

Colin: (49:31)
Yeah, yeah, not something that people are going to give up easily. I hope you’ve got parking places for plenty of big RAM utes.

Tonie: (49:40)
They’ll be sabotaged, don’t worry.

Colin: (49:43)
No, what you’re going to do is talk them around. That’s your real challenge.

Tonie: (49:48)
You’re very right, that’s a very good point. And that’s one of the conversations we have a lot in the group, because when conflict comes up, don’t want to be just cancelling people, which happens a lot on these online social media conversations. And we’ve done that a couple of times already now, where there was another group that was interested in coming to the festival, and it caused a bit of a kerfuffle. And we didn’t just say, no, you’re not aligned with us, see you later.

We carried on a conversation with them and things have changed. You know, it’s not, there’s still things we don’t agree with, but it’s not just, you know, banish people because we’re going to have to, we’re going to bring everybody around as you say.

Colin: (50:33)
Are you going to welcome them on the day? Are they going to be part of the thing?

Tonie: (50:38)
Absolutely, bring on the RAMs. Let’s have a chat about this!

Tony: (50:45)
Yeah, business as usual relies on us looking at our differences rather than our similarities. We’re so much more powerful. And that’s what these two festivals are about, the one in Ocean Grove, one Planet Festival, and the one you guys are putting on as well. Uniting groups.

Colin:
And although we’re The Sustainable Hour, neither of them is openly and only involved in sustainable living. You’re both very much community festivals on the 22nd and the 28th of this month. Both of them coming up, both of them sound inherently interesting. So be part of them. All the details are on the front of this podcast.

. . .

Jingle

. . .

And that’s about all we have time for. It’s been a really interesting festival issue, this particular one. What number are we up to now, Tony?

Tony:
We’re rounding up, getting closer to 600.

Colin:
600! Yeah, that’s a lot. So look, when you’re close to 600 festivals, come back to us. We’ll be happy to host you. In the meantime, be the difference!

Lauren: (52:08)
Yep, I would say: Be the inspiration.

Colin: (52:11)
Jackie, can you beat that one?

Jacqui: (52:13)
I don’t think I can, but I would say: Be part of it. Just get going!

Colin: (52:17)
Yes, right. Tonie? ‘Be degrowing’?

Tonie: (52:21)
Yeah. Have fun! That’ll be my one. Have fun doing it.

Colin: (52:29)
Yeah, that’s lovely. Thank you all. It’s been a pleasure. If, next time you’ve got something that you think will be of interest to our listeners, just contact Tony and you’ll be welcome back anytime.

. . .

SONG

‘I Heard It on The Sustainable Hour’

[Verse 1]
I woke up feeling like the world’s on fire,
Storms are rising, rivers running drier.
But then I tuned in, turned the dial,
And found a reason to stay inspired.

[Pre-Chorus]
They said, “The greatest threat is thinking someone else will do it.”
But I can feel the change – I know we’re moving through 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.

[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 – “I” to “We”]
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.

[Final Chorus – Empowerment Mode]
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!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CALENDARS
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 AND OPEN LETTERS
you could add your name to

→ List of running petitions where we encourage you to add your name

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

THE SUSTAINABLE HOUR ON AIR

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): 94.7 FM.

→ To listen to the program on your computer or phone, go to www.947thepulse.com where you then click on ‘Listen’ on the top right of the page.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NEWSLETTER
Receive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

We send a newsletter out approximately four-six times a year. Email address and surname is mandatory – all other fields are optional. You can unsubscribe at any time.

FOLLOW, INTERACT AND SHARE
The Sustainable Hour in social media

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheSustainableHour → Front covers

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/TheSustainableHour

• Blue Sky: www.bsky.app/profile/thesustainablehour.bsky.social

• Twitter: www.twitter.com/SustainableHour
(NB: we stopped using X/Twitter after it was hijacked-acquired by climate deniers)

• YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/thesustainablehour

Great if you’ll share the news about this podcast episode on your social media platforms!

→ Podcasts and posts on this website about the climate emergency

FESTIVALS OF CHANGE – from climate worry to community action

‘Landmark moment’: Renewables’ record surge sends power prices tumbling

The next Budget could decide Australia’s energy security

TRANSCRIPT
of The Sustainable Hour no. 582

CALENDARS
Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

Events in Victoria

PETITIONS AND OPEN LETTERS
you could add your name to

THE SUSTAINABLE HOUR ON AIR

ARCHIVE

NEWSLETTER
Receive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

FOLLOW, INTERACT AND SHARE
The Sustainable Hour in social media

Like this:

Related

‘Landmark moment’: Renewables’ record surge sends power prices tumbling

The next Budget could decide Australia’s energy security

TRANSCRIPTof The Sustainable Hour no. 582

CALENDARSEvents we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

Events in Victoria

PETITIONS AND OPEN LETTERSyou could add your name to

THE SUSTAINABLE HOUR ON AIR

ARCHIVE

NEWSLETTERReceive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

FOLLOW, INTERACT AND SHAREThe Sustainable Hour in social media

Share this:

Like this:

Related

TRANSCRIPT
of The Sustainable Hour no. 582

CALENDARS
Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

PETITIONS AND OPEN LETTERS
you could add your name to

NEWSLETTER
Receive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

FOLLOW, INTERACT AND SHARE
The Sustainable Hour in social media