This is the second part of the recording of Geelong Sustainability’s first ​Clever Living​ seminar for 2020, titled ‘​Drawdown – The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming​’.

The event featured Gene Blackley from Drawdown Australia and was MC’ed by David Spear who is a member of Geelong Sustainability and is the Executive Officer of Geelong Sustainability’s brand new social enterprise called ​GreenLight​.

New York Times 10 January 2020: How to stop freaking out about the environment and tackle climate change:Ditch the shameFocus on systems, not yourselfJoin an effective groupDefine your roleKnow what you are fighting for, not just what you are fighting against

DAVID SPEAR:

How to take personal leadership and action on climate change

In his presentation at the library, David Spear started off with painting a picture of our emissions profile in Geelong region:

“If we look at the latest available emissions snapshot for the Greater Geelong, we can see a couple of things to be alarmed about. Firstly, the total CO2-equivalent emissions for Greater Geelong clock in at 3,236,600 tonnes per year.

By my calculations, that’s equivalent to the weight of water in 1,295 Olympic sized swimming pools. On a per capita basis, that’s about 13.2 tonnes per person – or the weight of about 10 mid-sized family cars for every person in this region.

Or in Gross Regional Product terms: about 260 grams of CO2 per dollar.

Unfortunately, the evidence highlights these measures are going in the wrong direction! They are going up, not down. So this is a major concern.

If we want to take action on climate change here in our own backyard, where might we start to look?

Well, if we look at that data for our region, ​energy and transport​ are a big part of the answer. Emissions from electricity​ use – non-renewable electricity, that is – make up 58.37% of all our emissions, split roughly 50/50 between industrial use, and the balance between household use and commercial uses.

Emission from gas​ use make up an additional 12.85%, bringing the​ total percentage of emissions from

non-renewable energy use in our region to 71.22%. So almost three quarters.

Road based ​transport then comes in and adds another 24.18%

So it is logical, that if we are to make an impact on our own regional contribution to emissions, ​we need to make a dent in our use of non-renewable energy sources, and transform the way we choose to move ourselves – and our things – about.

But this is only part of the story.

We are part of a much larger global system, so tackling the challenge of climate change involves more than just dealing with our energy and transport emissions profiles in our own backyards.

The things we thoughtfully – or perhaps I should say, thoughtlessly – consume have a huge impact on people, our planet and the natural systems that make it work.