The Sustainable Hour no 373

In The Tunnel on 28 July 2021 we have yet another two very dynamic guests. They are doing seeming very different things but they are both acting with the same passionate intention to stop the “Us-versus-Them” mentality.

Dan Bleakley is an engineer who grew up in a coal mining community in Central Queensland. We have had Dan on before when he was on a hunger strike to get science-based real action on climate. He has also been on explaining why he decided to be arrested at an Extinction Rebellion non violent direct action last year. Today he talks about how he uses his Tesla electric car plus expertise in Twitter to get the climate emergency message out to a much wider audience. He also talks of his plans to use his car to get politicians to change their views on clean energy sources.Coal Miners Driving Teslas is creating a new conversation around electric vehicles in Australia. You can find out how Dan is sustaining himself financially as he targets marginal electorates in the lead up to our next federal election which has to happen before May next year on Patreon. Plus how he uses YouTube and Twitter to let people know what he is up to.

University lecturer Dr Blanche Verlie has just completed her PhD studies and has published this as a book called ‘Learning To Live With Climate Change – From Anxiety To Transformation’. An e-book version of it is freely available on www.taylorfrancis.com.Blanche outlines the genesis of the book and what she hopes people will take from it. The book is extremely well referenced and outlines the importance of working with others on climate solutions by implication the pure folly of attempting to do it by yourself.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook this week begins with an estimation of the amount of CO2 emissions generated by the two billionaires’ space jaunts over the past week. Colin then calculates the amount for Australia’s environment minister Susan Ley to fly to Paris in order to lobby UNESCO that the Great Barrier Reef is not endangered. This was after appealing the High Court verdict that she has a responsibility to protect the health of future generations when making decisions on whether or not to give permission for the opening of a new coal mine.

Colin zooms us to Japan with news that they unveiled new plans to greatly increase its uptake of renewable energy, in a blow to Australia’s coal and gas export industries. Japan is Australia’s biggest fossil fuel customer, and plans to reduce its coal use from 32% to 19% and gas will drop by 50%.

Then to London, where the United Kingdom’s climate minister Alok Sharma who will host the COP26 talks in Glasgow has written to world leaders reminding them that there are jus...