Guests in the The Sustainable Hour on Earth Day 22 April 2020 are Suzie Brown from Australian Parents for Climate Action, Karina Donkers who is starting a climate leadership course in May, and Robert Rothko, who launches his new climate-related song today: ‘Coffee’.

Week 5 of our covid isolation in The Tunnel 

Colin Mockett starts off today’s program continuing on from the report he referred to on last week’s show by the head of the United Nations Environment department, Inga Anderson. She points out that during the Covid-19 lockdown, the air is much clearer. This is mainly because there are fewer planes in the air and people aren’t driving cars anywhere near as much. This is well and good, but when the inevitable economic stimulus follows, we must not return to business as usual. Now is time to reset and focus on clean energy sources and healthier green jobs. The Europeans already have an expression and a hashtag for it: #GreenRecovery. This is what is essential if we want to face up to the climate emergency that hasn’t gone away. Much more about this further down on this page.

Our first guests is Ocean Grove resident and co-founder of  Australian Parents for Climate Action, Suzie Brown. She explains what AP4CA have been up to during our isolation and their plans for when the coronavirus releases its grip on us. They are planning to give strong support for the Students Strike on May 15 and beyond, and they are also calling for Geelong residents to have their say on Council’s new Sustainability Framework. Council has invited community input, which is open until 30 April 2020 – on www.geelongaustralia.com.au/yoursay

Excerpt from Geelong Council’s monthly newsletter

This is followed by another local in Karina Donkers who explains the online course she will be running on Climate Leadership. Her course is going to be delivered via Zoom. It will consist of eight two-hour weekly classes. Each class will feature a different facet of personal growth – spiritual, emotional and physical. She will no doubt bring her extremely wide skillset into play. Karina is very conscious of a responsibility to create a support network for all the participants.

More history is created on our show – we have our first song launch. Melbourne musician Robert Rothko tells us about his background as well as why he chose to release it on Earth Day’s 50th anniversary. We end the show with Robert singing his latest song  ‘Coffee’. We wish him all the best with this.

From The Sustainable Hour’s tunnel, we wish our listeners a happy Earth Day. Until next week, be the difference!

“Breathe in the songs of the ancestors deep into your lungs, let the messages land within the cells of your body and dance with your entire being, so that they may guide us to embodied pathways rooted in the power and wisdom of the old as we bring about the sacred new.”~ Karina Donkers,