In the sustainable studio on 4 April 2018:

• Heinz Dahl, sustainability consultant and wind energy expert

• Charlie van Dongen, electronic electrical engineer, principal of CTO Australia

• Bill Yates, community mobiliser in Victoria’s south-west

• Excerpt of TEDtalk by Naomi Klein, Canadian author

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 210 on 94.7 The Pulse:

» To open or download this programme in mp3-format, right-click here (Mac: CTRL + click)

  » Subscribe to ‘The Sustainable Hour’ podcast — via iTunes or via your own podcast/RSS software

Today’s program starts with an inspirational speech by renowned Canadian author and social change activist Naomi Klein in which she implores people to ‘dare to dream’ for a better world to lead to three people who are doing just that.

Charlie van Dongen whose company has developed an energy storage battery which they feel will revolutionise this technology.

Heinz Dahl is a veteran of the renewable energy industry who has a great passion for getting manufacturing back to Geelong, and finally Bill Yates who dares to dream of a coastal reserve free of race horses

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The big picture: Permission to dream

Naomi Klein encourages us to look at the “glaring connections” between issues and build a movement with imagination and organizing, based on core values

The Vatican brought Naomi Klein in to speak shortly after publication of Laudato Si’. She continues to connect climate change to the total interconnection and the culture of caretaking that Pope Francis advocates.  

Below is a link to her TEDTalk and a movement vision around linked issues, agreeing on our common yes.  

A few memorable quotes:

• Leaping without a direction looks a lot like jumping up and down.  

• Movements don’t care about credit.  They want good ideas to spread far and wide.

• Crises test us, can cause us to grow up fast.

• First we need to picture the world we are fighting for.

What is our dream for Australia? How do we imagine the future?

For instance: Could we green the desert, solve the problem with transport emissions with installing bike paths everywhere, and using driverless share-EVs and drones, 3D-printed goods, holograms and videoconferencing…as we build better connected communities with stronger values and better caretaking?

Naomi Klein delivered this speech on 20 September 2017 under the title ‘How shocking events can spark positive change.’

Map out common “yeses”

TED.com wrote as an introduction to the video:

“How can people today — who are facing “non-stop shocks” like record-breaking storms and militarized police — use these crises “to catalyze a kind of evolutionary leap” towards a more just, equitable, and habitable world?

In a recent TED Talk, available online this week, author and activist Naomi Klein laid out what she sees as two crucial ingredients for making that push forward—imagination a...