Our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 10 June 2020 are three very dynamic women from the south coast of New South Wales, who were in the front lines of the horrific fires that tore through their region five months ago.

They graphically retell the horrors they faced. Horrors that didn’t stop when the fires went out. We can hear the struggles their region has been been through in their voices. The people who have left the area. The people whose houses were under-insured or not insured at all. The number of suicides from people who just couldn’t cope with the trauma they had experienced.

Dr Michelle Hamrosi is a GP who lives her values each and every day. She has three children. “I would love people to understand how fragile life is on the planet, how interconnected we all are, and how we depend on nature for our health and wellbeing and ultimately our survival,” she says. Her two friends are no less impressive, articulate or resilient.

Kathryn Maxwell is a dynamo in her community – she is a sustainability advisor who has worked in public service and is very active in the South Coast Health Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) and runs the SAGE Veggies for All program. Since the fires, she has taken steps to make sure that the lessons of the fires aren’t forgotten.

Kat McCarthy is a freelance journalist and copywriter. She has two daughters at four and seven years. She is a local organiser for Australian Parents for Climate Action and a staunch advocate for her children’s safe and secure future. As political leaders fail to take real action on climate, her advocacy becomes activism.

At Little Green Corner café, which re-opened last week, we talk with owner Hugh Whitehead about their new Returner Cup system, where coffee-thirsty customers pay a $6 deposit for their take-away cup, which they then get back when they return the cup. Hugh also tells us about the impact the coronavirus lockdown has had on the café and how it has transformed the café’s business model. Hugh’s first priority was not having to lay off his workers and helping out local producers rather than being concerned about losing money.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook looks at The Guardian’s series of articles on The Green Recovery and gives us insights into how various countries are going as well as including advice by internationally acclaimed scientists as to how to proceed post coronavirus. Colin leaves us with the horrible news from the U.S. that the fossil fuel lobbyists are asking for a bail out – and President Trump is listening to them.

We highlight the World Environment Day event in Geelong last Friday where we listen to an excerp...