Getting To Better Together

Over past episodes in this podcast mini-series, we have explored many of the pressing challenges of the day: Most especially the changing climate of the planet and the related global warming have focused our attention. We have talked about the key features and about the appeals by the IPCC and other international and national bodies for policies, strategies and behaviours to change our reliance on fossil fuel.  Energy and transport are two particular areas where very significant changes are possible especially through technological innovations.

On one day soon within the coming months, there will be 8 billion of we humans on this planet. Clustered across nearly 200 different nations we will all be hustling and bustling away, to survive in a world that is beset by uncertainties and complex social, economic, cultural, and ecological challenges. Given that most of these challenges have truly global dimensions, how do we rise above our own national concerns? Who will help us think and act beyond our borders? Who are our international guardians and carers? 

Michael Sackett happens to be one of them and in and in his conversation with our host Richard Bawden, he shares his experiences and insights.  For more than two decades, Michael worked in increasingly senior positions with the United Nations organisation, particular within the World Food Program and in the latter part of his career, in Humanitarian initiatives mostly in Africa and Asia.

Another report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) brings another round of disturbing news about the extent to which the globe continues to warm particularly as a result of the elevated emissions of the so-called green-house gases.  As long as we continue to rely on the burning of fossil fuels as our major source of energy, the greater impact we will have on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - and thus the continuation of the greenhouse effect. So what is to be done?  

In this episode, our host Richard Bawden, welcomes back the distinguished scientist and commentator, emeritus professor Ian Lowe. With enviable clarity, Ian not only helps us understand the science, economics and politics at the heart of the matter, but explains in detail what we could do here in Australia about dramatically reducing our emission levels though technologies that are already well developed and in use in parts of the nation already.

The central theme of this podcast series of Getting to Better Together is that it is only through collaboration that we will be able to deal successfully with the pressing issues of the day.  So how do we get together to address these issues? And how do we figure out what 'better' is in the first place?

In this episode, our host Richard Bawden explores these matters from the perspective of sport as a medium for learning to collaborate in the quest for 'betterment' with his guest, Anthony Bedford. Associate Professor Bedford is an extremely well qualified and experienced commentator on such matters. He is an internationally recognised expert in sports analytics, the relevance of which to our present theme, quickly becomes evident during this fascinating interview.

One of the major impediments to progress being made in response to the dire challenges posed by climate change, seems to be our reluctance as human beings to see ourselves as part of nature. In a somewhat refreshing commentary, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in February, suggests that major steps forward could be taken if we were to approach the issue from the perspective of social justice. To concern ourselves with fundamental questions about what it means to be human: to appeal to our better selves and to think about nature as well as about our fellow human beings from a connected context of care and empathy, ethics, and morality. 

These are matters which our host, Richard Bawden, pursues with his guest in this episode, Dr Stefanie Fishel who is Lecturer in politics, international development, ecology, environmental justice, and law with special interests in climate change and biodiversity. With her broad compass of interests and expertise, it will be of no surprise that this conversation covers an extraordinary diversity of topics. These include relationships between citizens, politicians, and institutions in general, land ownership in Australia, agriculture, social justice, and indigenous ways of knowing, among others. 

In the previous episode in this series, we heard from two young women about their experiences as immigrants into this country. The context set by our host Richard Bawden, was the fact that the recording was made during Harmony Week starting 21st March. A week of celebrations of the cohesion and inclusion in Australia as a multicultural society. In this episode today, Richard talks with two other young women from different countries in the region to explore whether or not they feel included in a cohesive society and what, if anything from their personal experiences indicates that there is still room for getting to better together for the further development of an even more tolerant and culturally diverse society.

In this week we celebrate nationally what has become known as Harmony week. Established by the Howard government back in 1999, Harmony Day (the 21st March) was intended as a  celebration of cohesion and inclusion within Australian society. It was also to promote a tolerant and culturally diverse society. 

In this episode we hear from two young women from different countries in the region about their experiences as immigrants into such a claimed culture - is it as good as it gets or is there still room for getting to better?

Not knowing how the future will turn out is a great challenge to those who have to educate today's children to be effective leaders in the world of tomorrow.  As the COVID 19 pandemic illustrates so poignantly, the world is likely to throw up more and more issues that are inherently complex and filled with uncertainties and even unknowables.

So how do we school the young folk of today?  Richard's guest this morning is a very experienced 'old hand' at these matters. Don Maconachie, who is a Distinguished Companion of the University of the Sunshine Coast, has long been involved in educational reform from primary right through to tertiary. In this episode he shares many of the insights that he has gained from his myriad of experiences with schooling - a term which he distinguishes from education!  Reform and transformation are at the heart of his message. 

The basic assumption of getting to better together is that, when faced with common concerns, people will want to do that - or at least recognise that they (we!) need to do so. Even when these concerns are pressing, however, all too often, we simply ignore the need for communal discussion and action and hope that the proverbial ‘others’ will act in our interests.

The end of the year is nigh, and this calls for some reflections on our journey of Getting to Better Together over the past twelve months. 

This episode is a solo effort by our host Richard Bawden. Rather than presenting a synopsis of all twenty or so episodes to date however, Richard looks for signs of betterment across three particularly pressing issues of global concern: The Covid pandemic, global warming, and the state of democracy.  He finds some room for optimism on at least two of these fronts.