The Sustainable Hour no 322

Our guest in The Tunnel on 8 July 2020 is City of Greater Geelong Councillor Eddy Kontelj (enters at 33 minutes) talking about what’s up front in his environmental portfolio. He highlights key initiatives that he is overseeing such as Plastic Free July, saying goodbye to single-use plastic in Council, the planting of one million new trees in streets and parks in the city, Council’s new plan to go 100% renewables, and its purchase of 19 new emissions-free vehicles.

The interview is followed by a four-minute call to action by Geelong’s persistent climate emergency campaigner Caroline Danaher (enters at 47 minutes)

We have the 13-year-old Year 8 student Rory Phillips showing a maturity far ahead of his age as he sings and plays his recently released song, ‘Give Us The Truth’. We are so impressed with this young man.

Colin Mockett covers four topics in his Global Outlook. Firstly, the consequences of previously unheard of high temperatures in the Arctic led to a chain reaction which ended up with a huge amount of diesel oil flowing into the Arctic Sea. This was followed by soldiers being sent into the area to contain the spill and a news blackout, so we don’t have a true picture of the unfolding disaster there.

The Australian Research Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes recently released global study findings about the incidence of heat waves all over the planet. We aren’t the only country having this increasing problem in our summers.

Recent local government elections in France saw a huge increase in the vote for councillors and parties running on a green, climate-action focused agenda, and the resultant push for the recommendations of their Citizens’ Climate Convention are expected to be accepted in their entirety by the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron.

Colin contrasts the ‘green wave’ in France’s local democracy with the Australian Greens poor showing in the by-election in the Eden-Manaro electorate over the weekend. In an area which was ravaged by bushfires during the summer, The Greens’ primary vote dropped by more than 3 per cent points.

We hear the upbeat and insightful song ‘Put a Woman in Charg...