Climate Action Show

This BZE Radio episode was broadcast on Monday 12th June 2017  If you missed it last year, then you missed BZE producer Viv Langford kicking John Hewson off the phone so that Christine Milne could say hi! Anything can happen at a 3CR BZE Radiothon and sometimes does. But mainly we would just like to cover our costs for the year.  So if you’ve been on the show – or would like to one day – or have listened in and learned something new in the last year, then please make a pledge today before 6.  Read More: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/09/lets-expose-everyday-climate-denial-heres-how

This BZE Radio episode was broadcast on Monday 5th June 2017

We could consider earth as a rental property. God comes down to do an inspection and he/she says ”What are all these holes in the property? Why is all my coral bleached? What have you done with all the trees? …. ?” I can tell you. You won’t get your bond back. #StopAdani Roadshow MC  Films demand and bring out our human and emotional responses and that’s no less true when the subject is the climate crisis and climate solutions.Go ahead and ride the highs and lows of this emotional rollercoaster as this week BZE’s Vivien Langford covers just some of the highlights from the first ever Sydney screening of the 2017 Transitions Film Festival, plus an excerpt from Danny Kennedy’s presentation for the recent #StopAdani Roadshow.  Featuring:David Ritter  – David is CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, introducing the Sydney screening of the Josh Cox film How To Let Go of the World – and love all the things climate change can’t change. David Ritter talks about the emotional blow of seeing the Great Barrier Reef bleaching. From the poignant singer in the flooded subway after Superstorm Sandy to the man weeping after the film, but wanting to talk to us about the feelings climate change is flooding him with, this is a show with a difference.Miriam Lyons, Blair Palese, Piers Grove – GetUp!, 350.org and Energy Lab on the panel discussing the film There Will be Water. Blair and Miriam talk about the exhilaration of being part of the change, how they stay informed, stand their ground on social license and even wax philosophical about Elon Musk and Malcolm Turnbull and what their tweets and phone calls might mean for just what chance we have of a future. Piers talks about Canberra company Reposit Power and the potential of the technology as an exciting evolution, not just a solution to a problem.Danny Kennedy – Co-founder of Sungevity, Managing Director of the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF),  and #StopAdani Roadshow presenter. Danny is an Australian entrepreneur who sees so many start-ups and positive signs that you just want to get on board. Thanks Danny – BZE is all for that too!  MONDAY BZE Radio Mon 5-6pm TUNE in http://3cr.org.au/streaming  LIVE CATCH Podcasts @ http://bze.org.au/podcasts TWEET it in : @beyondzeronews and #bzelive FB conversation: https://www.facebook.com/beyondzeroemissions/

This BZE Radio episode was broadcast on Monday 22nd May 2017   This week BZE is chewing over food security and climate from a global perspective, as BZE Radio’s Vivien Langford interviews Clare Westwood in Penang and Alan Broughton – Vice President Organic Agriculture Association, with special guest Robin Laurie aka Professor Pym.Thank you to our guests:Clare Westwood –  Clare is a researcher for the Third World Network and Penang Peace and Justice CommissionAlan Broughton –  co-author of “Sustainable Agriculture v Corporate Greed”Robin Laurie – Robin, aka Professor Pym, with a lively radio drama about the incongruity of food as fuel for cars  Climate change is making it hard for poor farming communities in Asia. Clare Westwood talks about agro-ecology communities in the Philippines and the women who are building  social capital to ride out the storm. Clare motivates resilience and takes heart from Laudato Si’s exhortation to ‘hear the cries of the earth, to hear the cries of the poor’. She talks about how green revolution farmers are locked into a toxic focus on productivity and how they can go back to low input, low carbon methods which are more sustainable. We hear about NGOs working against the massive clearing of tropical forests and how logging is affecting local flooding and global warming. Alan Broughton is the Vice President of the Organic Agriculture Association and he explains how he and others think that soil carbon might be enhanced by ‘agroecology’. He tells us how damaging nitrous oxide is both for the climate and for soil carbon. At the global level he says we produce enough food to feed the present population and even the population of 2050, so food insecurity is primarily a distribution problem. We need to be aware that small farmers on 30% of the world’s farm land are providing 70% of the world’s food. Farmers organisations like La Via Campesina are showing a different way, skipping the agri-corporations and finding new ways of farming. Professor Pym is upset that too much good farm land is being planted with cereal crops to feed cars. Hasn’t anyone heard about electric vehicles? She joins us in the  3CR studio to give Vivien a dramatic tutorial based on  ‘The End of Plenty‘ by Joel K Bourne Junior.Brought to you by the BZE Radio Community Show team: Kurt Johnson, Andy Britt, Erin Jones, Vivien Langford and Roger Vize.

This BZE Radio episode was broadcast on Monday 15th May 2017“One of the common misconceptions is that a lot of the ERF money is for planting trees”  Jess Panegyres The Wilderness Society    A transformation is beginning to get underway in the agricultural land uses sector. And not before time – without a much-needed U-turn, agriculture, especially northern zone export beef production, is set to be the single biggest GHG-emitting sector of Australia’s economy over the next 2 decades.BZE’s Vivien Langford talks to two of Australia’s foremost landuse experts and a film maker about carbon sinks and the film Cultivating Murder.Guests:Prof Brett Bryan – from Deakin UniversityGregory Miller – Film Director of Cultivating MurderGerard Wedderburn-Bisshop – BZE Land Use Report author     We are expecting a lot from the land: to feed us, to feed livestock, to fuel cars and now to draw down carbon. And the carbon is not just from coal-fired power, petrol and gas – the agriculture and land use industries themselves, including the 90% of land clearing conducted for northern rangelands cattle grazing, will be responsible for around half our national annual emissions over the coming two decades!(more…)15 May 2017|Categories: Community Show

“It’s about time the role agriculture plays in the climate crisis – and the role it COULD  play in the solution –  got a concentrated dose of attention.” Bill Mc Kibben Our 26 million head-strong beef cattle – and 75 million head of sheep – ruminant meat and livestock industry is now responsible for more than half of Australia’s GHG’s and methane, and the near term climate change they are creating. So, is this an industry that can ever really be climate-safe?Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, University of Queensland’s Professor Ram Dalal and CSIRO’s Dr Michael Battaglia will join BZE Radio’s Vivien Langford to consider:Can improved pastures, and other interventions such as seaweed supplement, really kelp? Um, help.Is it just time to reduce the national herd?Are carbon abatement schemes and offsets sold by farmers having any effect on rising emissions?Thank you to our guests:Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop is the co- author of BZE land use discussion paper released in 2014: Land Use: Agriculture and Forestry. This report concluded that agriculture, and especially our northern rangelands grazing industry, is a much more important source of near-term GHG emissions than industry or government greenhouse reporting will admit. But the land use report insists that it is also the biggest most immediate opportunity for mitigation. Gerard has 20 years experience in monitoring land clearing in Queensland. More from Gerard on agricultural emissions here.Professor Ram Dalal led the National Soil Carbon Programme from 2012-2015. He is a professor in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University of Queensland and one of his key research interests is GHG mitigation.Dr Michael Battaglia is the Group Leader Greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation in agriculture at CSIRO. His article in The Conversation shows how seaweed can cut methane emissions by sheep and cattle. It also shows how wide the search is to lower the impact of livestock on the climate – but are these schemes capable of working in Australia’s various animal agriculture industries? The big news is that, globally, methane concentrations are on the rise. And the accelerated ‘near-term’ warming this causes is now largely thought to come down to ‘livestock methane’, aka animal agriculture. So, in this show, BZE Radio begins to shine a light on livestock methane.Of course, the question on everybody’s lips is ‘what are the opportunities available to us to change the way we do animal agriculture and that could make the best impact in the shortest possible timeframe. Can we do that in a way that is great for family farmers, good for our biggest high-emitting agricultural corporate players, and for regional Australia as a whole?’In Australia the opportunities for mitigating animal agriculture GHGs are a little hidden from view. Why?Well, the fact is that our go-to GHG inventory, the national inventory report (NIR), masks the fact that animal agricultural activities are our single largest source of GHG emissions each year. In fact most of us, incorrectly, assume the NIR is correct when it tells us that our electricity generation sector is Australia’s largest emitter.Looking at the impact on this decade and the next one, according to BZE analysis of ‘excluded’ GHGs and near-term impacts, agricultural activities contribute to over 50% of our annual national total emissions. And so, if remedied, could halve our national emissions.  How can we most effectively address the low-profile but high-impact non-CO2 GHG’s – especially methane, but also carbon monoxide, carbon black, tropospheric ozone, and nitrous oxide? These gases all arise from animal agriculture, including savanna burning, land-clearing, re-clearing and growing feed via industrialised agriculture.This area of research is grippingly important. It’s why we are thrilled to bring you a program highlighting what we can do in agriculture right now that will have the best climate impact.Next week we will look at the impact of Land clearing on climate change. In Australia 90% of land clearing and re-clearing is for extending and maintaining rangelands for both domestic and export cattle production. Immediately ceasing land clearing and re-clearing is therefore a major opportunity for GHG mitigation.Further reading:Zero Carbon Australia Land use: Agriculture and Forestry Discussion Paper 2014Seaweed Could Hold the Key to Cutting Methane Emissions from Cow BurpsWhat’s At Steak: The Real Cost of Meat  Global Forest Coalition 2016Tackling Climate Change through Livestock: A global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities, Food and Agriculture Organization Full PDF  Article summaryThis show is dedicated to Goldman Environmental Prize winner and farmer Wendy Bowman, as well as all those many farmers still mopping up after Cyclone Debbie.If you’d like to contribute to the restoration of normality for farmers affected by the cyclone, please join us in supporting the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal’s Cyclone Debbie Restoration Fund – sometimes even the most resilient communities need a helping hand. 03 54302399 www.frrr.org.au http://www.frrr.org.au/cb_…/cyclone_debbie_recovery_fund.php

This BZE Radio episode was broadcast on Monday 1st May 2017 The 2017 Energy Productivity Summit at the maritime Museum in Sydney in April 2017 drew a number of international experts. Here are just some who joined BZE Radio for a chat: thank you to Benoit Lebot (IPEEC) , Monica Frassoni, Mary Ritter and Reynald Gallis. The theme is perfectly captured by the chairman of the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity, Jon Jutsen:  “What’s the point of spending billions of taxpayers dollars to add new supply when most of what is produced now is lost?” – Jon Jutsen, chairman of the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity a2se.org.au and 2xep.org.auThank you to the Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) for hosting us and a great conference.Benoit Lebot is a civil engineer and directs the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency. He speaks about the exquisite efficiencies which propelled the first solar international flight. As a leader on climate change policies in developing countries he reports on signs of co-operation and hope. Monica Frassoni has had a career in the European parliament where she now represents the Greens. She is president of the European Alliance to Save Energy and speaks to us about the great number of jobs to be had retrofitting buildings and creating efficient transport links. Monica has been listed by some as one of the top global thinkers – interesting to know that for her the key is determination. Mary Ritter is the International Ambassador for Climate KIC. The Knowledge Innovation Community sponsors start ups like the Elephant Podcast, Tardo and Coolar. Business and local governments have access through Climate KIC to innovative thinkers and university researchers. Reynald Gallis is Vice President for ecosystems and marketing at THINXSTRA. He explains the next wave in the Internet of things being rolled out by SIGFOX. Its cheaper wireless monitors will create efficiencies in agriculture, traffic control, water monitoring and hundreds of other applications.  There will be many applications in developing countries.  MONDAY BZE Radio Mon 5-6pm & FRIDAY BZE Science and Tech Solutions Fri 8.30am-9am TUNE in http://3cr.org.au/streaming  LIVE CATCH Podcasts @ http://bze.org.au/podcasts TWEET it in : @beyondzeronews and #bzelive FB conversation: https://www.facebook.com/beyondzeroemissions/

Beyond Zero Emissions CommunityThis show was broadcast on Monday 24th  April 2017

This show was broadcast on Monday 17th  April 2017 The Zero Carbon Australia Industry Plan is shaping up nicely. The Zero Carbon Industry and Cement research will be presented at Australian Manufacturing Week and at the Ecocity World Summit. Listen in to hear BZE’s research director Michael Lord talk about zero carbon cement, renewable heat, zero carbon steel and how the circular economy can apply to Australia’s industry sectors.Our interviewer is Erin Jones, a co-producer on the BZE Radio Community team.Read more about the Zero Carbon Australia Industry Plan here. Watch a presentation here (November 2016). Cement, steel, and in fact all energy-intensive materials, can be produced without fossil fuels! Who knew!Cement can be made using fly-ash or using low-heat geo-polymers instead of limestone and coal, steel can be created from treating iron ore with hydrogen from excess renewable energy utilities, and we can use a range of off-the-shelf energy efficient appliances and technologies to create heat for industry, for everything from canning food to melting glass.Share!

This show was broadcast on Monday 10th April 2017Guests:Elena Garcia and Alan Broughton, the authors of the bookSustainable Agriculture versus Corporate Greed.Quinn Ollivier, ecologist and expert on sea grass and mangrove sequestration of carbonIn this show we go from a North Queensland cattle farm to the seagrass beds of coastal Australia.Climate change prompts us to think about threats to crops and the opportunities of land use. The BZE Landuse discussion paper is a great starting point.We looked at croplands with farmer Colin Seis last week and in this show we find out how well-managed cattle farming can reduce the carbon emissions of bush fires. Elena Garcia is a firefighter as well as a cattle farmer. She talks about insurance for farmers, harvesting of feral animals and protection of our water sources from mining. Elena’ aim is to be a bridge between  city people  who transport purchase and eat food and the rural people who produce it.  For Elena it is all about protecting water, protecting the food supply and protecting the ability of soils to fix carbon long term.Quinn  Ollivier specialises in the sediment underlying salt marshes, seagrass beds and mangroves. He is a part of team whose research may result in Blue Carbon credits becoming part of national and global carbon accounting calculations.He talks about the wealth of biodiversity and fishing that is protected by mangrove forests and how these and seagrass beds sequester huge amounts of carbon.Blue Carbon stocks are worth billions in carbon credits.  So in the great quest to draw down carbon, maintaining seagrasses and mangroves can be just as valuable if not more so than destructive coastal real estate.