Our time in The Tunnel on 18 August 2021 is devoted entirely to Geelong Sustainability. We have President Vicki Perrett and Vice-President Jennifer Jarrard on.

Two weeks ago we had Charles Street and father-son combination Les and Ryan Dew on the show talking about their concerns about the proposed Prospect Hill “waste to energy” project slated for construction in Lara. Vicki and Jennifer have researched this project well and add to the weight of evidence already presented against what they strongly feel would be a toxic project if it gets approval. The online petition they are running against it can be found here. We urge everyone to support it.

Also, Geelong Sustainability hopes that everyone in our community will get on board and support Geelong Council’s proposal to set a target of net zero carbon by 2035. Submit your opinion to Council here before 25 August 2021.

We start today’s show with some important questions and advice related to the sixth IPCC Climate Report, the latest version of which came out last week. If there was any doubt about the veracity of the science on climate, this was well and truly shattered by this report. It has left many people shocked at the harsh reality of the climate crisis we face. This in return has made us to feel some responsibility.

Yes, we have to talk about how bad things are, but with this comes a responsibility to give hope. Because here is the thing: We have everything we need in terms of solutions. We know what has to happen. However, there are two things – only two things – still lacking: 1) Political will, and 2) The number of people who are prepared to stand up to change that political will.

The big question facing us is: Can we do this?

[11:49] Damon Gameau, director of the film “2040”, tells us in a two-minute Facebook-clip that, yes we can: We know we can stay under 1.5 degrees with a massive stopping and down-scaling of any gas, coal or oil right now, moving to renewables. But also huge reforestation programs, planting trees, fixing our soil health, growing sea weed, whatever it takes to pull that carbon out of the atmosphere.

[03:20] Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook this week begins with a new report from the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which found that July 2021 was the hottest month on record. Ever. That is, since it began taking temperature 142 years ago. This information is so new that it wasn’t included in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report that was issued last week.

Colin then reports on some of the reactions to that report, from UN Secretary general António Guterres,