The Sustainable Hour no 369

On 30 June 2021, right on the doorstep to Plastic Free July, which kicks off at midnight, our guest in The Tunnel this week is Lisa Wriley. We feature a couple of the projects she is involved in.

Firstly a game that Lisa has updated. As a child she learnt a great deal about the importance of looking after our ecosystems by playing a game called “Conservation”. Many years later she decided that she’d like to bring the game back into being. The difficult task of tracking down the creator of this game followed. However Lisa’s determination paid off, and she was able to buy the rights which allowed her to update it. Its name is now The Earthcare Game.

Lisa currently runs a crowdfunder to get the first 500 games produced. It closes at midnight on 11 July 2021, and at the moment she has raised two thirds – $16,000 – out of her $25,000 goal. That’s been accomplished by the united financing commitment of 150 people.

The retail price of the game will be about $75, so in a way what you do by supporting the crowdfunder with that same amount is that you buy one copy of the box game with advance payment. Because if you pledge $90 or more, you will receive one numbered copy of the first 500 Earthcare box games and also cover the shipping cost of $15, plus you will earn the honourable title of being an Earthcare Hero. Estimated delivery February 2022.

Lisa is trying very hard to be as sustainable as she can possibly be in the materials and tokens that is being used in her game.

Additionally, we hear about the tiny house in which in which she now proudly lives and words. Lisa obviously takes the notion of being the change she wants to see in the world seriously. She takes us through us through its construction and the unique way she paid the young people who helped her build it.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Roundup begins in Sri Lanka, with an example of lightning striking twice. Recently Colin reported on a ship becoming disabled and sinking, spilling its toxic contents into the waters off that country. This past week, a second container ship reportedly suffered fire in its engine room, was disabled and drifting in the same ocean. Meawhile, the United Nations was coordinating international efforts to help Sri Lanka assess the damage from the first ship’s sinking. A UN team of oil spill and chemical experts provided by the European Union is there now.The drought and heatwaves affecting the West Coast of America are now threatening power supplies because the reservoir levels above the Hyatt Power Plant are low enough to force it to be shut down. The plant supplies electricity to 80,000 homes. As well, the West Coast is yet to reach its peak wildfire season – but already wildfires have burned more than last year’s total and California’s governor has declared a statewide emergency.

On a brighter note, the RE100 – a coalition of businesses committed to purchasing only renewable electricity – released statistics that show they are now using more renewable energy than the entire electrical consumption of the United Kingdom.

In Scotland a new pumped hydro scheme will double the nation’s hydro electric system making Scotland’s power system essentially net-zero.

The Sustainable Hour no 368 is about the International Day of Action Against Fossil Fuels

Our guests in The Tunnel on 23 June 2021 are both going to be involved in the International Day of Action Against Fossil Fuels on Saturday 26 June 2021:

Jacynta Fuamatu is 350.org’s organiser for the Pacific islands. She is also a Pacific Climate Warrior and tells us what her work involves. Like many campaigns now, they are very very keen on connecting people across countries and what in the past have been cultural divides. In representing 350.org, in the very climate exposed Pacific Islands, she believes in working together to protect the atmosphere that we all share. She will be talking about how her country Samoa has been impacted by the emissions that come from burning what we now know to be toxic fossil fuels.

Following Jacynta, we have a return visit from Shaq Koyok, a Malaysian First Peoples climate activist and artist. Shaq, in his very pleasant matter of fact way, explains the impacts that fossil fuels are having on his country and especially his indigenous brothers and sisters. He leaves us with a strong sense of justice being denied to his people. We marvel at his courage. Despite the possibility of harsh treatments from the authorities in his country, he and his fellow activists continue to educate people about the dangers of the climate emergency we face and refuse to be quiet.

Shaq will also be one of the speakers at the International Day of Action Against Fossil Fuels on Saturday. The day will be a series of interviews, some live, some pre-recorded. It will start at 9am and finish at 8pm AEST. It has three aims:

To show the extent of the damage done by fossil fuel projects all over the world, to show the extent of the opposition to these projects, and to continue to support the connection of communities fighting fossil fuel projects.

→ You can register at: www.actionnetwork.org

Mik Aidt declares ‘preferably’ Weaselword of the Week and updates us on the number of people who are living in a local government area that has declared a climate emergency. He also sings the praises of Jeremy Lent’s latest book, ‘The Web of Meaning’, and plays an extract from a recent speech this author gave on social media.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook this week begins at home in Victoria, with the good news that Chris Weeks – who was on our podcast three weeks ago – has passed his crowdfunding amount to buy a second-hand Suburu 4WD to report on and film climate activism right up and down Eastern Australia.Still in Victorian, this is the last week of the financial year. Starting from 1 July 2021, the Victorian government’s subsidy for solar panels drops by $400 – but those who register before June 30 will still get the full amount, even if they are fitted after July.And… The New South Wales government has shelved plans to adopt a version of Victoria’s tax on Electric Vehicles.Then Colin zooms us to the west of USA, where just about the whole of that area is now experiencing the

The Sustainable Hour no 367: Redesigning the way climate movements mobiliseIn the tunnel on 16 June 2021 we have two climate revolutionaries to guide and inspire us as humanity faces up to the climate emergency together:

Theo Kitchener is a movement designer and the founder of A Movement For Global System Change. She is a political theorist and change maker with a background in climate activism which she recently has synthesised with ideas from the healing and business worlds. Theo is also planning online courses around healing for activists, where participants will be learning how to overcome fears and the divides that separate us, rethinking how activist groups organise themselves in order to become more powerful. She is keen to promote confidence around our collective ability to unify and transform via strategic and functional means. You can find out more about Theo’s movement on Patreon and Facebook.

Dr Ruchina Talukdar recently received her PhD at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, on how activists from different cultures can work together effectively. She continues the theme that has run right through today’s program, i.e. the importance of accepting differences and not judging others who may appear to be different, but rather being able to put ourselves in their shoes and make an effort to understand. Ruchira Talukdar’s research compares energy politics and environmental mass movements in India and Australia. She has worked with Greenpeace in India an Australia, and with the Australian Conservation Foundation.

In-between the two interviews, we listen to a Facebook speech by American author Jason Yosef Shurka who has been featuring a lot on social media recently. Although he is talking about the Covid pandemic and people’s cognitive dissonance about it, we listen to his talk because what he is saying is just as relevant to the climate emergency. He refers to the “great divide” and the importance of overcoming that.

We also listen to Baba Brinkman makin’ waves and issue a language warning from the Juice Media crew as they once again use humour and many profanities to comment in their unique way about our Federal Government’s lack of real action on climate.

“Divided we fall, united we fly.”~ Jason Yosef Shurka, American author, coach and speaker

In today’s show, Mik Aidt excitedly brings in news from the latest Australia Talks survey from ABC News and the encouraging increase in people’s attitudes as regards how much extra they were prepared to spend to prevent a climate catastrophe. You will see more details below on this page.

“We are rapidly reaching the point of no return for the planet. We face a triple environmental emergency – biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution. (…) Science tells us these next ten years are our final chance to avert a climate catastrophe, turn back the deadly tide of pollution and end species loss.”~ Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, speaking to the world on 5 June 2021, World Environment Day

The Sustainable Hour no 366

We have three guests representing #GenerationRestoration in #TheTunnel on 9 June 2021:

Isabella Morand facilitates the very popular ChangeMaker online course. This takes people who want to work for a better world through a course on how to be good community organisers and become an effective changemaker. Our system is not working the way that it is meant to, so in order to respond to what we are facing, local groups can make big change as they transform Australia’s hyper-individualism to grassroots relationship-building, while ‘Doing the thing’ and being the solution.

Natalia Shafa and her partner Edmund Weir are developing an online create-a-better-world competitive game, ‘Descendants of Earth’, and will launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter on 12 June 2021 to raise capital for improvements to the game in the lead-up to a full launch in November 2021. Crowdfunders can pay to reserve their profile name, access the alpha version, join our chatrooms and get limited edition merchandise. The two game-developers are currently busy adding new challenges for players to face, and an in-game map where players can post potential environmental actions in their local area and find local green businesses. “Climate action is a multi-player game,” they say.

We also hear Geelong resident Alan Barlee give his sharp and highly critical comments to the annual budget proposal which Geelong Council has had open for submissions from the public. How did the Councillors respond? That’s what we focus on after listening to Alan’s contribution.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook begins in Paris with a quote from the head of the OECD urging rich nations to take the sustainable path to Covid recovery. The surprise was the speaker’s name.Then in quick succession to New York, where the United Nations on World Environment Day  called on countries to meet commitments to restore one billion hectares of land inside the next decade. That’s an area the size of China.Then Colin zooms us to South East Asia where a cargo ship laden with chemicals sank last weekend after 10 days ablaze, spewing chemicals plastics and fuel in a new environmental disaster.In California, Tesla’s chair, Australian-born Robyn Denholm noted that Australia provided her company with the lithium, nickel and other metals needed to make its batteries and vehicles – but it should be much more if we were to process the ore rather than simply export it.This is followed by the news that six world banks now are combining to pressure the steel industry to decarbonise.The town of Longyearbyen on the island Svalbard in Norway’s far-north was named the fastest-warming ...

The Sustainable Hour no 365

In #TheTunnel on 2 June 2021 we have two guests:

[11:25] Mindfulness coach Lise Saugeres tells about her personal experience with depression and when she found the practice called mindfulness so helpful in dealing with this, she decided to devote the rest of her life to bring this healing practice to others. She soon found that she could turn this into an occupation of running courses that could sustain her. Her next course will an eight-week online mindfulness course, ‘Mindfulness in Everyday Life’ via Zoom every Monday starting 21 June 2021 with a free online information session for the course on 7 June.

[29:20] Our second guest this week is Crusty from Manic Seeds Media, a long time social justice and environmental journalist and filmmaker as well as a staunch climate activist who in his travels from campaign to campaign all over Australia saw a real gap in getting messages out to the Australians about what was really happening in blockades and action that often take place in isolated areas.

Crusty found that the mainstream media couldn’t be relied on not to distort the reporting and decided to create it himself while teaching other activists to do the same. More than 100 short films and a feature film of a Tasmanian forest campaign have resulted. For the last six years he has travelled all over the country in a very cheap car that just can’t be coaxed to the next campaign. Not to be deterred, he has started a crowd funder. He is already almost half way to his $5,000 target.

If you’d like to contribute to keeping Crusty reporting the truth from blockades all over Australia, go to www.tinyurl.com/frontlinemedia

[03:25] Colin Mocket‘s Global Outlook demonstrated that the climate change pendulum has swung in favour of us and our precious planet. The Dutch court ruling that multinational oil giant Shell must reduce its emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 was grouped with the news from the United States that shareholders in another oil multinational, Exxon, appointed two environmental activist-nominated directors to the board. At a third oil company, Chevron, investors voted in favour of a proposal to cut its total greenhouse gas emissions, including customers’ emissions. These, along with the Australian Federal Court decision to support school students action tasking Environment Minister Sussan Ley to consider their future when making decisions affecting climate change, such as allowing new coal mines to be opened, means that the environmentalists now have society’s backing and the polluters are on the back foot.

Meanwhile in Washington, president Joe Biden announced a budget where $6 trillion will be raised for health care, education and climate change packages by taxing the company’s rich-list and biggest corporations.

In China’s Shenzhen city, on the Pearl River delta in southern province of Guangdong,

The Sustainable Hour no 364

[12:35] Our special guest in #TheTunnel on 26 May 2021 is Mark Wakeham who is from the Australian Council of Trade Unions specialising in working with unions on policies to help them transition to a clean energy job-rich future. Mark outlines the nature of his work right across the broad union movement both in Australia and at an international level. He cites figures that gives us reason for hope about the momentum of the uptake of renewable energy right across the world.

[31:50] Following Mark we have our youth reporter Ben Pocock with another well-researched segment. This time his focus is recycling. As well as the usual products, like glass, he also reports on how unusual items, like tooth brushes can be recycled. Once again he completes his report with very useful links that can be used to follow up his information.

We are so pleased to see Ben’s development as a reporter. Each report he delivers shows more skill development, both in terms of his content and also how he delivers it. He is an important part of The Sustainable Hour team, and we look forward to many future contributions to our show.

We open the hour with this video clip from the Scool Strike for Climate in Geelong on Friday 21 May 2021

[1:00:48] We listen to the speech Sal Fisher from Geelong Sustainability gave at the climate rally in front of Geelong’s city hall, listing ten reasons why a gas import terminal in Geelong is a dum idea.Sign the petition against this dum idea here.

[36:57] We also welcome back our roaming reporter Rusty. This time Rusty uses his experience in local government over many years to scrutinise the climate emergency action plans that local councils have adopted. He starts off with the premise that if they are taking their declaration seriously they will allocate sufficient funds to its Climate Emergency Response Plan. He focuses on Borough of Queenscliffe and Surf Coast Shire Councils with comparisons and contrasts. He finishes off with advice for councils to lobby for changes to the State Planning Act. For Councils that have declared a climate emergency to genuinely be able to act accordingly on initiating real solutions, we need changes in the law, he says, and this will only happen if enough people become aware of it and begin talking about it and advocating for it. Rusty suggests to start a new group of scrutinisers which will look deeper into these matters. More notes here.

[04:18] Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook begins in the Antarctic, where an enormous iceberg, 4,320 square kilometres, has broken from the ice shelf. Called A-76, it’s now the world’s biggest and it’s floating free in the Weddell Sea, where Shackleton lost his ship to pack ice. Next Colin zooms us to the United Kingdom, where British politicians and activists are pushing back against plans for a free trade deal with Australia, warning that Australian produce and products have poor climate standards. Then to the United States, where Ford announced that this time next year – the American spring of 2022 – the electric Ford F-150 pick-up will ...

The Sustainable Hour no 363Our three guests in The Tunnel on 19 May 2021 are all climate revolutionaries in their own unique ways.

[10:05] Anthea Falkiner, 49, and Mary Christie, 19, are both Extinction Rebellion activists who were involved in three days of non-violent direct actions aimed at disruptions in Canberra last week. They were part of a team of 35 dedicated, determined and courageous Australians from three states who came to Canberra to show their displeasure at the lack of any funding for real climate action in this year’s budget. Both were arrested for their actions. Anthea is an experienced campaigner, but for 19-year-old Mary, this was her first time. We learn of their motivations for doing what they did. We are left with the burning question: just who were the criminals in Canberra last week?

[38:45] Dr Adrian Panow is Director of Energy at Deakin University, Geelong’s local university with a budget pushing $1 billion, 60,000 students and set to become carbon-neutral by 2025. By 2030 the intention is to be carbon-negative, which includes sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Adrian has two focus points at Deakin. One is maximising the use of renewable energy to power their operations. The second one is making sure that right across its operations, no energy is wasted. Adrian tells us about a new carbon-conscious culture that is growing at his university by going down the dual pathways of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

[01:09] Opening the hour, Mik Aidt is excited about the Rebellion of One, which is a new kind of highly effective solo protesting climate fight – a new style of rebellion – that has started to spread across the globe.

[03:40] Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook starts in the United Kingdom with the conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson phoning Scott Morrison, urging him to set Australia a decarbonising target by mid-century. Our illustrious leader declined as was clearly shown by the budget that was handed down last week. Boris also has appointed Sir David Attenborough as host of COP26 in Glasgow, and Sir Dave announced he will be addressing world leaders at international meetings in the six-months before COP26 – starting with the G7 Summit in Cornwall next month.At the important Transport Transition Summit, we were shown up yet again when the UK announced new initiatives starting with promoting the British to walk and cycle more – along with electrifying rail transport and decarbonising road freight. Spain also got on board, with Madrid planning zero emissions for its freight, while the Spanish government said it would end fossil fuel production by 2042.Not to be outdone, in the US, the Biden administration announced the country’s first off-shore wind farm off Martha’s Vineyard – 84 turbines, 800 megawatt. Colin then zooms us to Finland where research from Aalto University found one third of global food production will be affected by climate change if emissions are not cut.Finally here in Australia, the progressive online newsprovider The Conversation analysed last week’s budget to find that for every $100 spent just 37 cents was spent on the environment and 16 cents on addressing climate change. Definitely not a good look for us. Meanwhile, talks about trade sanctions being imposed on us gather momentum world wide.

Week after week, we meet people who are active participants in solutions in their own way telling their stories, showing us all that we have everything we need to transition to a safer, more just,

The Sustainable Hour no 362Guests in our Tunnel on 12 May 2021 are:[12:40] Deb Punton from Greensong Ecopsychology tells of her work in Deep Ecology and “The Work that Reconnects”. Her work aims to connect us with nature – if we see ourselves as part of nature, we become much more eager to protect it, rather than trying to exploit it, as this is one of the things that got us into the mess we are in. Her current focus is taking people through a book by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone called ‘Active Hope’. She explains the importance of this work in building resilience in people working for a better world. It’s an antidote to the “burn out” that often accompanies this work. Deb introduces the idea of “honouring our pain” – expressing the strong feelings associated with the pain needs to happen so we don’t carry them around and be restricted by them.[30:30] Following Deb we have 14 year old climate activist Aruba Faruque from Bangladesh. Right from the start we see that Aruba could easily be seen as “Bangladesh’s Greta Thunberg”. She tells us why she is so passionate about the work she does to educate people in her country about the dire nature of the situation we face. She also tells us the importance for her of getting involved in the International Day of Action against Fossil Fuels on Saturday 26 June. She is part of the organising committee for this day which she sees an a very important to call out fossil fuel companies for the death and destruction they have caused all over the planet she loves so much. In addition to this it’s an opportunity to show the extent of the world wide opposition to fossil fuel companies and their toxic products.

[50:25] Our final guest for today is our regular koala correspondent Janine Duffy – founder and CEO of the Koala Clancy Foundation. As always Janine champions her beloved koalas and tells us what’s up front there. She starts out by saying just how bleak the future is for koalas. She counters this concern by overseeing the planting thousands of trees – 45,000 this year. Most in the Geelong district, but this year also in East Gippsland on the edge of areas that were burnt out in the 2019-2020 Summer. She issues a challenge to all residents of Geelong and district to become custodians of trees.

“I got very passionate because I saw that not enough people were doing enough about the climate crisis… I thought I could do something… Time is running out and we are walking… I know that I am really young and small, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything… I felt pressure to act to protect our planet and the billions of young people like me… we are losing our right to life which is a basic human right.”~ Aruba Faruque, 14-year-old Bangladeshi climate activist

[01:04] Today Mik Aidt starts with an angry delivery of news that only a fifth – nowhere near enough – of the trillions of dollars currently being spent on economic recoveries from the Covid pandemic around the world, are being spent on a true sustainable recovery. Another good reason to join the Australian school children on Friday, when, once again, they go on schoolstrike for climate.

[04:25] Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook is a good contrast to that. It is filled with positive stories. He starts with the news that with less than 200 days to the global Glasgow Climate Summit,

The Sustainable Hour no 361

We are so pleased to have Kitty Walker, Carol Carney and Tuesday Browell in The Tunnel on 5 May 2021 – three community mobilisers in their own ways, getting good results by getting the people behind them. We hope that you will be as inspired by them as we are.

[11:40] Kitty Walker is founder of the very busy and effective Queenscliffe Climate Action Group. She tells the story of how her climate concerns forced her to call a public meeting in her town. Step by step she saw that concern solidify as a community, which she didn’t know the extent of which existed previously, formed around her. This led to a strong connection with their small local government borough and its recent declaration of a climate emergency.

All through this process Kitty surprised herself by what she was able to achieve by getting out of her comfort zone – the same happened to the committee that formed around her to take their concerns forward. They have worked hard with Council to develop a climate emergency response plan that spells out how they will act as a community to implement policies and practices consistent with a climate emergency. On 19 May 2021, Council meets to make a decision on this plan, and Kitty encourages all residents of the borough to show up in red clothes at that meeting in order to show councillors that the community stands together in its support of the proposed plan.

[32:00] Carol Carney and Tuesday Browell are two friends from Echuca who, when they heard about the sorry state of the Baarka (Darling) River, couldn’t just sit with that concern, they had to do something about it. Just like Kitty, they gathered people around them and with their support formed the Baarka River Convoy. What followed both saddened and enraged them as they navigated their boats along that river, often having to pull their boats out because of the lack of water. They observed first hand the devastation that mismanagement of water resources, bad land use practices and corruption has impacted, both on the river and the communities right along its length. With this knowledge came a responsibility and determination for them both to work with others to right this wrong, building a groundswell of love for the river.

Mik Aidt starts today’s show off with concerns he has about the lack of ambition in the Victorian government’s carbon reduction targets that came out over the weekend. Colin Mockett picks up on this and echoes that sentiment. His Global Outlook zooms us to France where the government there has released a report aimed at the financial sector. This clearly shows the comparison in bottom lines between the companies that adopt climate friendly policies and those that don’t. Even companies like Coca-Cola are getting onboard the renewable energy train, announcing that all their vehicles in Europe will be electric by 2030.

Then it’s over to England with an announcement from the government there that because of their policies, five major air pollutant levels are down and what the positive health consequences of that are. Then up to Scotland where we find out how much of their energy comes from renewable sources today.Finally we end up back in Oz with news that entrepreneurs have found a way of making money by using sea weed to reduce the amount of methane emissions coming from the cattle industry.

Until we return in a week’s time,

Guests and speakers in The Sustainable Hour no 360 on 28 April 2021: [08:00 – 16:00] Adrian Whitehead from the Climate Emergency Action Alliance and voteplanet.net.[17:25 – 35:45] and [42:50 – 45:18] Glenn Todd and Hayley Sestokis, founders of Action Skills. [37:27 – 42:45] Ian Dunlop, an Australian engineer, writer, energy expert and former coal executive, speaking at the Geelong community event last week about a proposed gas terminal.[45:25 – 49:20] New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern‘s speaking at Joe Biden’s Climate Leaders’ Summit.

In the tunnel this week we firstly have Adrian Whitehead, the founder of the political party Save the Planet which since has merged with the One Planet party and taken the new name Climate Emergency Action Alliance. We learn what they will campaign on – definitely no greenwashing with this determined party: telling it like it is, both in terms of the climate crisis we face plus the solutions we have to deal with it.

As a perfect complement to Adrian, we hear from Glenn Todd and Hayley Sestokas from the newly formed Action Skills team. Both Glenn and Hayley are very enthusiastic about the need for activists to engage with digital media to expand their reach, harnessing the power of technology with the aim of empowering people to create change.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook this week is dominated by the outcome from last weekend’s Climate Leaders’ Summit, with Colin listing the countries which have pledged to increase their targets and efforts, starting with the US and Europe and including Japan, Brazil and Canada. Those significantly not pledging to advance were three – Russia, Australia and India – with India forgiven for its present precarious Covid situation. This was followed by the news that US president Biden is considering a ‘carbon border tariff’ – essentially a tax on high-emitting nations – a move similar to the EU. A very thinly veiled warning yet again to countries who aren’t pulling their weight.

Find links and video recordings in the notes below on this page.

We wish both the digital activist team and Adrian’s political party all the best as we tackle the climate emergency head on. We all share the same atmosphere, so we all need to protect it together. Until we return next, we hope you all find a way to join us in the quest for a safer, more just, inclusive and healthy world: Viva la revolución climática!

“Is it enough? No. But it is the best we can do, and it is something we can work on.”~ John Kerry, new climate czar of the United States

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