Welcome to the first Good Byte episode. This short episode raises topics I feel are important and relevant to all of us. In this episode I'm discussing the climate tipping point we are currently facing in Australia and the world.

Selected Links from the Episode:

Unstress episode with Allan Savory on the fate of civilisations

Download the PDF transcription

Dr Ron Ehrlich: Hello and welcome to Good Bytes. My name is Dr Ron Ehrlich. This is the first episode of this kind of episode that I'm going to be doing throughout the year and today I wanted to talk about the situation that we face in Australia from the North to the South, from the East to the West. Australia is on fire. We are as a country used to Bush fires. That is, there's no argument about that. But I have lived in Australia for over 60 years. I have spoken to people who've lived in Australia for much longer than that. And the one thing we all have in common is we have never seen anything like this before. And does it come as a shock? Does it come as a surprise? No, it doesn't because if you go back to climate scientists warning about what will occur when our environment warms, they have been warning that we will have fires as we have never seen before.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: So this is not a matter of conjecture anymore. This is the reality of what we face in Australia today and what America has faced on its West coast in their last summer and what the world will face in the coming weeks, months and years. Let's face it, climate change has occurred from the moment humans moved out of East Africa and spread themselves across the world. We have as a species changed the climate, but as our species is increased, our impact on the climate is not surprisingly greater and we are reaching, in fact, we may have already reached a tipping point and unfortunately, our politics is not reflecting what is needed. Unfortunately. I think one of the frustrations that we find with our politicians, and this seems to be common theme globally, is frustration with our politicians. And I think that is because politicians if I'm not mistaken, are elected to reflect the best interests of the community.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: And I think there is growing frustration with the fact that industry has an undue influence on not just policy, but the outcomes of that policy. And that may be reflected in record profits to two corporations, while arguably people's incomes have remained static or they've been offered unlimited credit to maintain a lifestyle which is unsustainable. I've often said we are encouraged to be good consumers, but we are not encouraged to be good citizens. So I've also made a point in the podcast over the years and in my book life less stressed that we, while we may only get to once every three, four years or five years, depending on which country you're in, we do get to vote every single day. And that vote is with how we spend our money. And I believe that the governments that we have today are a reflection of us as a society.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: We are to blame for the leaders that we have. The leaders are a reflection of us as a society. And if we are wanting to change that political story, then we have to change our own story and we have to exert our influence and our biggest influence. But our biggest influence is how we spend our money. And for me personally, and I'm not going to pretend that I am the perfect consumer or that I'm not a consumer, my goodness, you know, come into my house and you will see this is not me pontificating about what I do. This is me thinking out loud and saying this is what I want to do, this is what I want to become. I, as I have often said, have only been in clinical practice for 40 years and I still have much to learn.

Dr Ron Ehrlich: I am 64 years old and I have still much to learn and I am opened and honest to say that. I think it's also interesting to see why people are so resistant to change. This is something that has challenged me in my own pr...