The Sustainable Hour no 364

[12:35] Our special guest in #TheTunnel on 26 May 2021 is Mark Wakeham who is from the Australian Council of Trade Unions specialising in working with unions on policies to help them transition to a clean energy job-rich future. Mark outlines the nature of his work right across the broad union movement both in Australia and at an international level. He cites figures that gives us reason for hope about the momentum of the uptake of renewable energy right across the world.

[31:50] Following Mark we have our youth reporter Ben Pocock with another well-researched segment. This time his focus is recycling. As well as the usual products, like glass, he also reports on how unusual items, like tooth brushes can be recycled. Once again he completes his report with very useful links that can be used to follow up his information.

We are so pleased to see Ben’s development as a reporter. Each report he delivers shows more skill development, both in terms of his content and also how he delivers it. He is an important part of The Sustainable Hour team, and we look forward to many future contributions to our show.

We open the hour with this video clip from the Scool Strike for Climate in Geelong on Friday 21 May 2021

[1:00:48] We listen to the speech Sal Fisher from Geelong Sustainability gave at the climate rally in front of Geelong’s city hall, listing ten reasons why a gas import terminal in Geelong is a dum idea.Sign the petition against this dum idea here.

[36:57] We also welcome back our roaming reporter Rusty. This time Rusty uses his experience in local government over many years to scrutinise the climate emergency action plans that local councils have adopted. He starts off with the premise that if they are taking their declaration seriously they will allocate sufficient funds to its Climate Emergency Response Plan. He focuses on Borough of Queenscliffe and Surf Coast Shire Councils with comparisons and contrasts. He finishes off with advice for councils to lobby for changes to the State Planning Act. For Councils that have declared a climate emergency to genuinely be able to act accordingly on initiating real solutions, we need changes in the law, he says, and this will only happen if enough people become aware of it and begin talking about it and advocating for it. Rusty suggests to start a new group of scrutinisers which will look deeper into these matters. More notes here.

[04:18] Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook begins in the Antarctic, where an enormous iceberg, 4,320 square kilometres, has broken from the ice shelf. Called A-76, it’s now the world’s biggest and it’s floating free in the Weddell Sea, where Shackleton lost his ship to pack ice. Next Colin zooms us to the United Kingdom, where British politicians and activists are pushing back against plans for a free trade deal with Australia, warning that Australian produce and products have poor climate standards. Then to the United States, where Ford announced that this time next year – the American spring of 2022 – the electric Ford F-150 pick-up will ...