The Sustainable Hour no 361

We are so pleased to have Kitty Walker, Carol Carney and Tuesday Browell in The Tunnel on 5 May 2021 – three community mobilisers in their own ways, getting good results by getting the people behind them. We hope that you will be as inspired by them as we are.

[11:40] Kitty Walker is founder of the very busy and effective Queenscliffe Climate Action Group. She tells the story of how her climate concerns forced her to call a public meeting in her town. Step by step she saw that concern solidify as a community, which she didn’t know the extent of which existed previously, formed around her. This led to a strong connection with their small local government borough and its recent declaration of a climate emergency.

All through this process Kitty surprised herself by what she was able to achieve by getting out of her comfort zone – the same happened to the committee that formed around her to take their concerns forward. They have worked hard with Council to develop a climate emergency response plan that spells out how they will act as a community to implement policies and practices consistent with a climate emergency. On 19 May 2021, Council meets to make a decision on this plan, and Kitty encourages all residents of the borough to show up in red clothes at that meeting in order to show councillors that the community stands together in its support of the proposed plan.

[32:00] Carol Carney and Tuesday Browell are two friends from Echuca who, when they heard about the sorry state of the Baarka (Darling) River, couldn’t just sit with that concern, they had to do something about it. Just like Kitty, they gathered people around them and with their support formed the Baarka River Convoy. What followed both saddened and enraged them as they navigated their boats along that river, often having to pull their boats out because of the lack of water. They observed first hand the devastation that mismanagement of water resources, bad land use practices and corruption has impacted, both on the river and the communities right along its length. With this knowledge came a responsibility and determination for them both to work with others to right this wrong, building a groundswell of love for the river.

Mik Aidt starts today’s show off with concerns he has about the lack of ambition in the Victorian government’s carbon reduction targets that came out over the weekend. Colin Mockett picks up on this and echoes that sentiment. His Global Outlook zooms us to France where the government there has released a report aimed at the financial sector. This clearly shows the comparison in bottom lines between the companies that adopt climate friendly policies and those that don’t. Even companies like Coca-Cola are getting onboard the renewable energy train, announcing that all their vehicles in Europe will be electric by 2030.

Then it’s over to England with an announcement from the government there that because of their policies, five major air pollutant levels are down and what the positive health consequences of that are. Then up to Scotland where we find out how much of their energy comes from renewable sources today.Finally we end up back in Oz with news that entrepreneurs have found a way of making money by using sea weed to reduce the amount of methane emissions coming from the cattle industry.

Until we return in a week’s time,