Wait. Why are we here? What are we saving the world from? Join Waveney and Tim as they delve into the reasons behind the reasons to find out why (and how) we have ended up in the 21st Century eating up the planet that supports us.

It’s our first episode of season two so we are also asking ourselves: Why are we here, doing this podcast? Turns out there are lots of reasons! And what can you, dear listener, expect to get out of it? Connecting with your power to make a difference.

Referencing work of Professor Nate Hagen; Jarred Diamond and Darrin Qualman, we look at the real reasons human activity is changing the climate and causing extinctions and the good news is - We don’t think it’s because we are dicks.

Waveney argues that we have superpowers ‘indistinguishable from magic.’ And that we are simply using those superpowers just like any organism would. We use them in the service of the primal urge to grow, conserve our own energy and to multiply. Nothing on Earth can out compete or even curb us (with the notable exception of the virus). So the big question is; Is it feasible to imagine that we might be able to curb ourselves?

Links and Stats

Speaking of your power, did you know that, along with all humans alive today, you have two special superpowers? Darrin Qualman, Civilisation as Asteroid: Human, Livestock and Extinctions (online article)

Jarred Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (book)

Nate Hagens, Reality 101 (video course)

Oil barrel v Human labourer statistic from this video in Nate’s Reality 101 course (video)

We over shot the earth’s carrying capacity in 1970 (website)

How To Save The World's website / Facebook Page / Instagram (@HTSTWPod)

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Waveney and Tim are taking a break after an entire year of weekly episodes before they come back with an even better podcast for you! We chat about the journey we've taken over the last year of episodes of How To Save The World. Tim's trying to reduce trips to the supermarket, ditching teabags, getting a compost going and going organic. Waveney talks about changing her buying behaviour toward clothing, learning a TON about soil and the lessons from lockdown. We compare favourite episodes, guests and topics.

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In this episode, Tim is joined by Margaret from Kiwimana Buzz and Jess from Bees Up Top to chat about how we save the bees!

Bees are an absolutely critical part of our environment and food chain but facing multiple pressures from human encroachment, industrial mono-culture food production and pesticide exposures, their numbers are in serious trouble.

Our top tips for helping the bees are planting a diverse range of flowers, herbs and spices in your garden (heritage, if possible) and avoid using pesticides. If you see swarming bees, google beekeepers in your area who'll be happy to help take them away. And consider putting a hive in your workplace or home! It's fun, helpful, educational and you'll get honey!

Kiwimana Buzz's website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / Podcast
Kiwimana are beekeepers who have bees located in the wild west coast of Auckland, New Zealand. We teach, we sell beekeeping supplies and provide information to help you keep honey bees.

Bees Up Top's website / Instagram / Facebook 
Bees Up Top aims to increase New Zealand's bee population by supplying healthy, happy hives to urban areas and to educate our future generation on the importance of keeping our little workers around.

Thanks to Auckland Council and Live Lightly for supporting this podcast! 

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Giants of the sustainability movement in Aotearoa (and self-styled No-waste Nomads), Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince talk to Waveney about the connection of individual action to big change, what they were up to in lock-down, the origins of their (and Wave's) journey into waste reduction and the demographics and often gendered nature of today's sustainability culture.

You may know Hannah and Liam from their website TheRubbishTrip.co.nz or the TakeawayThrowaways.nz campaign, aiming to rid NZ of single-use coffee cups.

Resources and Links

TheRubbishTrip.co.nz 
TakeawayThrowaways.nz - please sign now!
Regeneration not Incineration campaign - please sign now!
NZ Product Stewardship Council
The Kiwi Bottle Drive (to support the Government in forming a Deposit Return Scheme for single-use bottles)
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Charles Eisenstein's book The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible 

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Waveney and Tim have some sustainability good news from over the world, including;

A reduction in stresses on the environment during COVID-19 lockdowns, plus bike sales are way up, Amsterdam is trialing using Kate Raworth's Donut Model of economics for policy-making and investors flocking to green energy as a save-haven through these troubling economic waters.

Planet-based meat is having a meteoric rise in popularity. USA sales are up almost 300% since March this year and people are normalising the new products as part of their daily diets.

Bubble bees know how to stimulate plant flowering and a research team in Zurich are the first scientists to observe this incredible abee-ility (sorry). It shows bees are more able than we knew to change their environments to help them survive and flourish.  

Renewable energy is on the up. The Guardian reports that “Renewable sources made up 72% of new energy added in 2019”, meaning a third of the world's energy is now generated from renewable sources.

An increasing number of countries are recognising legal rights for nature. Starting with Ecuador in 2008, and followed by New Zealand and Columbia in 2017 - there is an increasing groundswell of support to protect nature in our courts.

A project to build our planet's eighth largest solar array has just been approved by the US government and will be built in Las Vegas. It'll supply enough power for 260,000 homes and will be the largest solar farm in America when it's completed next year.

Thanks to Auckland Council and Live Lightly for supporting this podcast! 

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We got a listener question from Jules, asking us ‘what careers or tertiary education choices can kids focus on with the view to aiding positive climate change action?' Great question! In this episode we talk about what constitutes a ‘sustainable' or ‘green' job, discuss the automation threat (and opportunity) and chat about the circular economy.

Jobs you do with your hands are pretty safe for the immediate future - That includes permaculture, earth-building, conservation, waste-to-resource jobs and traditional tradie jobs. Also careers that involve so-called Left-side brain skills, such as people management and creative problem-solving. There's also entirely new fields inside of STEM opening up for future and present technologies, including hardware and software.

We also discuss eco-friendly side hustles to supplement your income, career and training paths. We've even found free online aptitude tests to help start you thinking about what you may be best suited for.

Sources 
World Economic Forum's 2017 Future of Work report
Foundation for Young Australians' New Work Order report (PDF)

NZ Productivity Commission's 2020 report: Technological Change and The Future of Work (PDF)

Global Strategic Trends - The Future Starts Here video

Picking a career

Do What You Are book (Amazon link)
Free Career Tests
Green jobs list (UK)
Green jobs list (Australia)
Fastest growing green jobs
Jobs in electric vehicles (USA)

Job Vacancy Websites
Global Environment Jobs / USA Green Jobs / UK Green Jobs / Canada Good Work  / Australia Green Jobs / NZ conservation jobs / Do Good Jobs NZ

Training
Resource Recovery Training from the Zero Waste Network
Permaculture Design Certificate

Circular Economy

Circular Economy Resources (from Sustainable Business Network (SBN), New Zealand)
What is a circular economy? (SBN)
Emerging jobs in the circular economy (Greenbiz)
3 essential elements for future circular jobs (Greenbiz)

Thanks to Auckland Council and Live Lightly for supporting this podcast! 

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Welcome to the absolute rock bottom beginner guide to gardening. This episode is for you if you expect it to take about 5 minutes a day to garden, don't compost properly, don't particularly love the idea of gardening, and think you can put a seedling in an abandoned old garden bed and it will have everything it needs.

We asked 20 of New Zealand's top gardeners from around the country to share the very best of their advice.

Top suggestions on what to plant going into winter.

• Leafy greens (e.g. Silver beet, kale, spinach, winter lettuce pak choi, rocket) 
• Broad beans
• Parsley
• Herbs
• Garlic chives
• Spring Onions
• Choko (didn't say on the episode but well worth checking out – its grows like an out of control weed, so perfect for a beginner gardener – follow advice from rediscover.co.nz:
• https://rediscover.co.nz/oh-the-places-youll-grow-choko/

How to beat slugs and snails

• Healthy mature plants can beat slugs (learn how to sheet mulch and compost) 
• Number one tool is picking off at night with a torch 
• Make a beer trap from a 4cm high saucer sunk into the soil, clean and refill weekly if populations are high.
• More tips here: https://rediscover.co.nz/natural-ways-to-deter-slugs-snails/

Recommended resources for beginner gardeners, in New Zealand. 

Kiwi's first 

• What to grow in winter by NZ region from edible backyard: https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/what-to-plant-in-your-vegie-patch-in-winter/
• Buy trusted organic sprays, or let the experts come to you:
  •  https://biologix.myshopify.com/  make your way to the Home Garden page.
  •  www.growinspired.co.nz 

Read
How to Grow Your Own Food (Real BOOK, $25. Hamilton-based)

Connect

• • Organic Edible Garden Sign up to the newsletter here and connect on Facebook here. 
  • Taranaki based Farm Next Door, sign up to their newsletter coming soon. 

Best of The Rest

• Square Foot Gardening (USA). Good overview of the method from this Australian site.
• Eliot Coleman's book, 4 Season Harvest. Works well for South Island (Maine, USA)
• Anything by Charles Dowding on Youtube.  Somerset UK. Excellent videos. “His method is the easiest I've see anywhere - and with great results!”

   

Thank you to the gurus, market gardeners, educators and communicators who gave their time. Here they are with links to any helpful projects they are involved with – heaps of great resources: 

• • Sophia Xiao-Colley, organic market gardener  
  • Caity Endt, organic market gardener
  • Judy Keats,

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We chat to Shane Ward about the recently launched Better Futures Forum (BFF), 
the hot new platform where New Zealanders are meeting to facilitate the transition towards a more resilient Aotearoa.  BFF is seizing the transformational power of COVID-19.  In just three weeks since it launched, the organization, co-founded by Dr Mike Joy, has received tremendous support with a groundswell of people joining them. They have a focus on six key areas: Land and Water; Infrastructure; Transport; Building and Housing; Energy; and Economy, and are encouraging any interested New Zealanders to join them.

We also chat to Shane  (international regenerative-agriculture design-consultant, speaker, teacher, writer and founder of Action Ecology) about his vision for NZ's future and get him to explain the powerful impact of regenerative agriculture.

Check out Shane's recent lecture at Victoria University here.

Hear more from Dr Mike Joy  in a previous How To Save the World episode ‘Saving Our Waterways with Dr Mike Joy.
Thanks to Auckland Council and Live Lightly for supporting this podcast!

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Clarke Gayford (Fish of The Day host and partner of NZ PM Jacinda Ardern) joins us to talk about the haunting sound of his morning alarm, being an Ambassador for NatGeo's Planet or Plastic and his obsession with the ocean. Growing up in Gisborne and falling in love with fishing, Clarke has spent his professional life travelling the world and connecting locally with NZ's fishing community for his TV show Fish of The Day. He discusses their connection with the environment and the dynamic moves they're making to fish more sustainably in NZ.

We also talk about the power of writing letters to the Prime Minister's office, an amazing surfer in Malaysia who's turning beach rubbish into a material that's saving depleted coral and a hero of his, Sir David Attenborough.

Resources and Links
NatGeo's Planet or Plastic campaign
NZ Bird and Fish: Best Fish Guide [warning: PDF] 
Mike Bhana's work
Sustainable Coastlines 
Love Your Coastline NZ
David Attenborough's narrated memoir ‘Life On Air'

Thanks to Auckland Council and Live Lightly for supporting this podcast!

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Luke Wijohn is just 18 years old and running for Parliament - In the Prime Minister's Electorate, no less. After being a lead organiser for NZ's Youth Strikes for Climate, Luke decided to run as a Green MP in this year's election. We chat about his desire to change the conversation we're having with and about our farmers and how to achieve transformational change in city systems like waste and transport.

Luke has a focus on getting politicians speaking to issues they have lived experience about and trying to increase youth turnout at the election this year (he's a staunch supporter of making 16 the voting age and lays out a pretty compelling case for it). We also chat about The Zero Carbon Bill and what the media gets wrong about political reporting in our MMP system.

Follow Luke on Twitter here and on Facebook here.

Thanks to Auckland Council and Live Lightly for supporting this podcast!

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