The Sustainable Hour no 344

On 9 December 2020 in The Tunnel we have tree guests:

[08:30] David Spratt, who co-wrote ‘Climate Code Red – The Case for Emergency Action‘ with Philip Sutton 12 years ago, takes us through the latest Breakthrough publication, Climate Reality Check 2020, and how we are what he calls “blowing up the climate system.”

[27:00] Geelong Sustainability’s Sal Fisher explains her strong concerns about Viva Refinery’s plans for a floating gas hub in Corio Bay. She counters each advantage that Viva has been mentioning in our local media and gives an alternative vision that won’t cost us the Earth (literally). She leaves us with the strong impression that fossil gas can’t play any part in the transition away from fossil fuel.

[43:00] After hearing from our first two speakers on the problems associated with our continued use of fossil fuels, our third guest, Elly Tucker, changes the tone and talks about a climate solution about which she is very enthusiastic. She introduces the concept of an Ecosystem Restoration Camp, the first of which they recently started in the beautiful Thora Valley near Bellingen in Northern NSW. Now Elly and her team are actively looking for other sites to regenerate. The big question we have at the end is: Will one of these be around Geelong?[03:30] In Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook today, we firstly hear about the times that various countries have set for phasing out their petrol driven vehicles. He then brings us back home and tells us about still more hot temperature records that have been set in Australia. Next he takes us to Brazil with some very sobering figures about the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. Finally he brings a very stern warning to the Australian government because of its lack of real action to address the climate crisis from none other than Christiana Figueres, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change who was the architect of the global Paris Agreement on Climate in 2015.That’s all we could fit in for this week’s show. We’ll be back next week, to shine extra lumens on people working on solutions or warning us of the problem. Until then: Live the difference.

“The climate wars that have been going on in Australia for over a decade now are just… honestly, they are such a suicidal situation because Australia, of all the countries in the world, Australia holds such promise with renewable energy. There is no other country that has as much sun potential as Australia.”~ Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

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