Our guests in ‘The Tunnel’ — also known as Zoom, where The Sustainable Hour no 320 is recorded during the coronavirus lockdown — on 24 June 2020 are:

Anna Langford from Friends of the Earth Melbourne: Six years ago, we met a very passionate 15-and-a-half-year-old year 10 student who had just started as a volunteer for Friends of the Earth in Melbourne. Today Anna Langford returns to The Sustainable Hour as an organiser for the organisation’s Act on Climate Collective to tell us about their recently campaign to get the Andrews government to set real targets to address the climate emergency we face. We see that Anna has lost none of that passion and commitment to the task at hand as she combines this work with her university studies.Sonia Randhawa from the Sortition Foundation and Coalition of Everyone: Sonia worked for many years as a journalist, both in Malaysia and in Australia. She has done a lot of work on how to implement Citizens’ Assemblies in Australia. The germ of an idea of having one in Geelong before the local government elections in October has life breathed into it during our chat with Sonia.

Colin Mockett‘s global outlook: In this week’s show Colin looks at Australia’s international ranking in a number of sustainability indices. While there are some overall improvements, we still have a long way to go. One particular area where we fit that category is emissions from cars and numbers of electric vehicles sold. Meanwhile, Denmark – where the government currently is introducing a carbon tax – tops the list.

To round off this week’s Sustainable Hour, we hear an extract from a recent powerful talk by climate teen hero Greta Thunberg. It’s an excerpt from the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation program ‘Summer on P1’  which occurred on 20 June 2020, titled: ‘Humanity has not yet failed’. “Doing our best is no longer good enough. We must now do the seemingly impossible,” Thunberg says in the program where she takes us along her trip to the front lines of the climate crisis. You can listen to her entire talk here.In-between Anna, Sonia and Greta, we hear music from Australian Tones & I: ‘The Kids Are Coming’.

Please, if you found this show stimulating in any way, please help us by sharing it far and wide. Till next week’s show: Be the difference!

“The climate and ecological crisis cannot be solved within today’s political and economic systems. That isn’t an opinion. That’s a fact.”~ Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

Can we turn the 2020s into ‘The Regenerative Decade’? In this series of interviews about what that would imply, we talk ecology, deep adaptation, grief, compassion and passion, connecting with nature, resilience, revitalisation, restoration, revolution… – the bigger picture, in other words.

Lead with values – not with politics

Can we – with our thoughts, feelings, experiences and visions expressed in words – build a foundation that will allow us to start an entirely new journey? That in itself is the journey I have set out on with my series of “regenerative village” podcasts… as we mobilise and get ready for the next local election in our region.In The Regenerative Hour no 22, I’m in the inspirational and confidence-building company of the long-time – I would say legendary – Bellarine community-organiser Tom O’Connor

Tom O’Connor is a former Geelong councillor, swimming coach and an active local community organiser, who lives in Drysdale on the Bellarine Peninsula. He will run for the Geelong Council election, which begins in August 2020.

→ Tom O’Connor’s Facebook page and Linkedin profile

Articles mentioned in the podcast

→ The Guardian – 18 June 2020:World has six months to avert climate crisis, says energy expert “International Energy Agency chief warns of need to prevent post-lockdown surge in emissions.”

→ Voice of Action – 6 June 2020:‘Collapse of civilisation is the most likely outcome’: top climate scientists“The world’s most eminent climate scientists and biologists believe we’re headed for the collapse of civilisation, and it may already be too late to change course.”

→ World Economic Forum – 6 June 2020:“The great sustainable reset: The new world of work after the pandemic”

Our guests in The Tunnel – also known as The Sustainable Hour no 319, coming to you via Zoom – on 17 June 2020 are:

Belinda Noble, who is co-founder of the Communicators Declare movement. She was so impacted by the horrific bushfires raging through New South Wales and Queensland late last year that she felt she had to do something. She is a professional communicator, so she reached out to her industry for individuals and companies to declare that they’d have nothing to do with promoting any fossil fuel company or project.

First People’s leader Lidia Thorpe, who gives her views on true reconciliation in our country as well as the #BlackLivesMatter issue in Australia. 

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook today looks at the following items:

– Firstly the parlous state of the Australian finances of the Adani company that hopes to build a controversial coal mine in Central Queensland and the incredible irony in what is keeping that company afloat here.

– We hear about the very successful grassroots campaign facilitated by Market Forces to make insurance companies, which are thinking about insuring that carbon bomb, see the error of their ways.

– We hear what the influential World Bank says will be the consequences if countries do not take real action on climate as they stimulate their economies post Covid-19 – as well as what will happen if they do.

Britain’s Got Talent had 10 million viewers watching an ‘SOS from the Kids’, who – through their lyrics – told the adults the inconvenient truths which keep being ignored. “We can do better than this,” they proclaimed.

We are truly fortunate to have such inspirational guests on our show. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did in making it. Till next time – be the difference: be aware, declare and act.

“Words matter. The pen is mightier than the sword, and our industries hold great influence over the messages that reach the public and the projects that gain social licence. For too long our industries have been helping companies that produce greenhouse gas pollution by furthering their interests and protecting their reputations. To have any chance of reaching net zero, communicators must be aware, declare and act.”~ Belinda Noble, co-founder of Communicators Declare

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Our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 10 June 2020 are three very dynamic women from the south coast of New South Wales, who were in the front lines of the horrific fires that tore through their region five months ago.

They graphically retell the horrors they faced. Horrors that didn’t stop when the fires went out. We can hear the struggles their region has been been through in their voices. The people who have left the area. The people whose houses were under-insured or not insured at all. The number of suicides from people who just couldn’t cope with the trauma they had experienced.

Dr Michelle Hamrosi is a GP who lives her values each and every day. She has three children. “I would love people to understand how fragile life is on the planet, how interconnected we all are, and how we depend on nature for our health and wellbeing and ultimately our survival,” she says. Her two friends are no less impressive, articulate or resilient.

Kathryn Maxwell is a dynamo in her community – she is a sustainability advisor who has worked in public service and is very active in the South Coast Health Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) and runs the SAGE Veggies for All program. Since the fires, she has taken steps to make sure that the lessons of the fires aren’t forgotten.

Kat McCarthy is a freelance journalist and copywriter. She has two daughters at four and seven years. She is a local organiser for Australian Parents for Climate Action and a staunch advocate for her children’s safe and secure future. As political leaders fail to take real action on climate, her advocacy becomes activism.

At Little Green Corner café, which re-opened last week, we talk with owner Hugh Whitehead about their new Returner Cup system, where coffee-thirsty customers pay a $6 deposit for their take-away cup, which they then get back when they return the cup. Hugh also tells us about the impact the coronavirus lockdown has had on the café and how it has transformed the café’s business model. Hugh’s first priority was not having to lay off his workers and helping out local producers rather than being concerned about losing money.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook looks at The Guardian’s series of articles on The Green Recovery and gives us insights into how various countries are going as well as including advice by internationally acclaimed scientists as to how to proceed post coronavirus. Colin leaves us with the horrible news from the U.S. that the fossil fuel lobbyists are asking for a bail out – and President Trump is listening to them.

We highlight the World Environment Day event in Geelong last Friday where we listen to an excerp...

Welcome listeners and readers. The Sustainable Hour team of Mik, Jackie, Colin & Tony welcome you to show no 317.

The first of our three guests on 3 June 2020 is Anika Molesworth who helps run her parents’ station near Broken Hill. Anika is a natural leader. She was one of the founding members of Farmers for Climate Action. As someone who lives on the front lines of climate change on very marginal farming, she speaks with great authority on what needs to happen to help us face up to the climate emergency we face. 

Following Anika, we have Adrian Drew. Our regular listeners may remember the glowing report Mik gave after he visited Adrian’s land last year. Today Adrian proudly tells us about how his land is looking at the moment – his hard work there is paying off. He also talks about another project he’s involved in together with The Australian Landscape Science Institute – a project to form a national body of regenerative farmers. We’ll follow this one with a great deal of interest.

Our third guest for today is Christian Slattery who is the Australian Conservation Foundation‘s senior Stop Adani campaigner. Christian gives the latest on what is happening at this very controversial mining site. Although work has started up there, he confidently outlines that it can still be stopped if every person who is concerned about it use the readily available campaign tools to contact businesses who are deciding whether to support this carbon bomb or not. These tools have been successful in making 67 companies realise that it wasn’t in their long term interests to get involved in such an unpopular project.

Last week in his Global Outlook, Colin Mockett talked about the recent decision by the European Commission to implement their Green New Deal as a major part of their post cover economic stimulus. This week Colin goes into more specific detail about the actual amount they are going to allocate and what it will go towards. It makes the Australian ‘Roadmap to Economic Recovery’ look very, very ordinary. Once again, he heaps praise on their chairperson Ursula von der Leyen as he outlines one of the three pillars on which they’ll be concentrating. The total they have allocated is 1.85 trillion euros – that’s approximately $4 trillion Australian dollars, as they strive to become the first climate-neutral continent.

We hope that you get as much out of listening to us today as we did in producing it.

Until next week, #BeTheDifference

“I am also very optimistic that we can transition to a renewable energy low carbon society because we’ve got the knowledge, we’ve got the skills, we’ve got the technology to do that – it’s a matter of the will power, the determination to change the way we currently live.”~ Anika Molesworth, Farmers for Climate Action

Can we turn the 2020s into ‘The Regenerative Decade’? In this series of interviews about what that would imply, we talk ecology, deep adaptation, grief, compassion and passion, connecting with nature, resilience, revitalisation, restoration, revolution… – the bigger picture, in other words.

“Find your village!” says our guest in the 21st regenerative episode: Shane Ward, who is a regenerative land use and soil health consultant, founder of Action Ecology, and an Earth Protector trustee as well as a registered Conscientious Protector.

Inspired by recent developments and his work with Better Futures Forum, a new platform where New Zealanders facilitate the transition towards a more resilient Aotearoa, Shane talks about community engagement and a refreshed revival of local democracy coming out of the coronacrisis. “We need to get better at managing complexity and to get better connected in order to gain resilience,” he says.

This is the presentation Shane refers to in the interview:

The talk Shane gave in New Zealand: “Climate, Food & Future”

Climate, Food & Future: Regenerative Agriculture & the Challenge of Change

Action Ecology Founder Shane Ward delivered this seminar at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, in October 2019, looking at the scale of the crisis we face across climate, biodiversity and land use, the root causes behind why we find ourselves in this mess, the comparison between industrial and regenerative agriculture and examines the knowledge we already have for how we navigate our way out towards a better world.

“We must not let the process of discussing and planning how our approach to a global food system that can operate within planetary boundaries be captured in back room meetings by corporate interests looking to maintain a profiteering monopoly through continuing their industrial, extractive approach to agriculture. That path leads us to collapse.”~ Shane Ward

Shane was recently interviewed on the How to Save the World podcast, discussing the Better Futures Forum and Regenerative Agriculture:

Nature isn’t cancelled

Stay Alert! The Beginning Of The End Of Covid? | Russell Brand

#TheTunnel of 2020: A floating of ideas, building renewed courage and determination

Demand better

Transcript of Mik Aidt’s introduction and conclusion of The Regenerative Hour no 21.

We know what we are in for. We can see it coming.

Seven out of ten of us actually think that the climate crisis is as serious in the long run as the coronacrisis,

The team on The Sustainable Hour have compiled a playlist of songs that are not only catchy and something you can clap your hands to but also all have an underlying message. Music and the arts play a significant role in delivering messages of all kinds. Some artists sing about love, some about heartache and others about country. This very personal compilation of tunes covers topics on recycling, environment, climate change and more providing the audience with knowledge, inspiration and hope.

Finishing off with Lil Dicky’s ‘Earth’, you will want to hear a repeat of this two classic hours of music. Each song has been picked and introduced by Mik, Tony, Colin and Jackie from The Sustainable Hour. Whilst the team interview many knowledgable and highly regarded guests week to week, they understand and appreciate the importance music has in moving people to action. Music expresses that which cannot be put into words. It is a space where we can all be the difference.

→ For better music sound quality, you can download this mp3-file in 192 kbps (164MB)

Playlist

* ‘Save The World with this Melody’ – Bernadette La Hengst2. ‘All the Wild Wonders’ – Ecopella3. ‘Sleep Australia Sleep’ – Paul Kelly4. ‘Beds Are Burning’ – Julia Stone5. ‘The End of the World‘ – Billie Eilish6. ‘River’ – Ash Grunwald7. ‘12 Days of Crisis’ – Extinction Rebellion8. ‘You Don’t Speak For Me’ – Judy Small9. ‘Something of value’ – Eric Bogle10. ‘It’s the End of Oil’ – Charlie Mgee – Formidable Vegetable11. ‘Climate Movement’ – Spoonbill & Charlie Mgee12. ‘Change’ – Gaia’s Eye13. ‘It’s Clear & Right’ – Solar Edge14. ‘New World’ – Katie Costello15. ‘Solar Gangnam Style’ – Solar Edge16. ‘You’re the Voice’ – 1 Million Women17. ‘Stand Up’ – Taboo18. ‘Despite Repeated Warnings’ – Paul McCartney19. ‘Making Waves’ – Baba Brinkman20. ‘Beds Are Burning’ – Midnight Oil21. 

Our first guest in The Sustainable Hour no 315 on 27 May 2020 is Geelong Councillor Ron Nelson. As chair of Council’s Waste & Resource Recovery  committee, Ron faces some spirited questions about what the City of Greater Geelong is doing on this front. He doesn’t shy away from the fact that the Council could be much better. He believes that more funding from the State and Federal governments plus a greater emphasis on education is what’s needed.

Ron is followed by Clare Land, the author of the recently released book, ‘Decolonizing Solidarity – Dilemmas and Directions for Supporters of Indigenous Struggles’. Clare outlines what led to the genesis of the book, which is the culmination of her PhD thesis. She doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulty of the task involved: essentially it’s overcoming 250 years of broken promises, genocide, stolen generations, injustice and prejudice, but it’s work that must happen if we want to achieve true equality and hence long term sustainability. We have much to learn from this ancient wisdom if we are to survive the climate emergency we face.

Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook covers three important issues. Poll results show the British public’s surprising choices for mass transportation in the post coronavirus constrained world. International condemnation of Australian Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s post covid-19 economic stimulus package. And the commission looking into our disastrous wildfires over summer spending the first two weeks of its hearings focussing on climate change.

Mik Aidt complements this with an important observation about the country of his birth, Denmark, and how they are very much ‘punching about their weight division’ as regards the carbon reduction and renewable energy targets, with the government now announcing that it is going to make the biggest investment in the country’s history, creating two energy islands.

After this, Mik and Colin discuss last week’s ABC Four Corners program ‘Climate Wars’ as we hear some extracts from it, where key public service advisors were very critical of government decisions over several decades allowing industries to continue to burn fossils and wreck the climate.

“Decisions made today should tick at least these two boxes: a liveable planet and a good life!”~ Diana Ivanova, Research Fellow within the Sustainability Research Institute at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds

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Our guest in The Sustainable Hour no 314 on 20 May 2020 is one of the founders of permaculture,  David Holmgren. David reveals his motivation for doing what he does and his belief that permaculture holds many answers to the wicked problems we face in our world today. He speaks with great authority on many topics, not the least of which is his decision to break with business as usual in taking a huge risk in crowdfunding his latest book ‘Retrosuburbia’ and getting it published in Australia.

David also explains why he has offered it on a ‘pay as u like’ basis and has been overwhelmed by the positive response. His not-for-profit business has never been as busy as it is right now. It is seen by many an an essential roadmap to a safer, more just and healthy future. Those who look at permaculture as a simply a way of ‘growing stuff’ will be re-educated in The Sustainable Hour today.

Colin Mockett ranges widely in his ‘Global Outlook’. He introduces us to a new term, ‘Astroturfing’, and explains its significance. He talks about a report that the prestigious Oxford University has brought out recently, where researchers looked at 700 different economic stimulus initiatives that followed actions to get economies up and running after the Great Financial Crisis in 2007. They concluded that the green focussed ones were much more successful.

Following this, Colin reports on the recent decision made by the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund to divest from a number of Australian companies that keep entrenched in a polluting fossil fuel-based business model. His concluding point for today is about residents from The LaTrobe Valley to take the Victorian Environmental Protection Authority to court for the way they managed the fires there a few years ago.

Towards the end of the program, we join Charlie Mgee‘s choir as he raps “Let us rise as a choir of the people who get it,” and David Holmgren agrees with us that the success of pioneer movements such as permaculture and the climate movement comes down to whether or not a whole lot of people find the inclination and the courage to be the difference.

“Given that we as a society have been walking like a zombie into the maelstrom of climate change, resource depletion and ecological breakdown and dealing with a lot of the economic limits that come from that, the wake up call that has come from the coronavirus for a lot of people has been really positive.”~ David Holmgren, co-founder of the permaculture movement, author of ‘RetroSuburbia’, a guide to life in a post-carbon world

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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“All logging is criminal in a climate emergency.” Guests in our 20th episode are Alice and Nic from the community group Protect Warburton Ranges.

Nic Fox was arrested because she locked herself onto forestry logging equipment near Warburton in Victoria, Australia. The day before, Alice, a 23-year-old law student had been removed from the area after she had been protecting the same coup for three days and nights by tying a ‘tree sit’ platform hanging 30 metres above the ground to the logging machines.

The two women both live close to where these trees are now being cut down for wood chips. Neither had done anything like this before. They are law-abiding citizens, who have tried to get the attention of authorities and politicians.

“Science shows that logging so close to our homes will put the community at a grave risk of higher intensity fires for decades to come. The area provides vital habitat to fire threatened and endangered species. They must be protected – we have lost enough,” explained the two concerned citizens. But their concerns were ignored.

“I am angry and disgusted. Waves of deep grief roll through me as I watch the forests being razed. I will not be silent. I will not stand idly by while the very trees that are integral to our survival are ripped out of the earth and increasing our fire risk.”~ Nic Fox, ‘Isolating for Nature’

Acknowledgement

We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.

The traditional owners lived in harmony with the land. They nurtured it and thrived in often harsh conditions for millenia before they were invaded. Their land was then stolen from them – it wasn’t ceeded. It is becoming more and more obvious that, if we are to survive the climate emergency we are facing, we have much to learn from their land management practices.

Our battle for climate justice won’t be won until our First Nations brothers and sisters have their true justice. When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”

The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore climate change are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How utterly disgusting, disrespectful and unfair is that?

About this podcast series

The Regenerative Hour is a series of interviews about what it would imply to turn this new decade, the 2020s, into ‘The Regenerative Decade’. We talk ecology, deep adaptation, grief, compassion and passion, connecting with nature, resilience, revitalisation, rethinking, restoration, reform, civil disobedience, revolution… – the bigger picture, in other words. The Regenerative Hour is a ‘child’ of The Sustainable Hour and runs in the same podcast stream. This is the 20th episode.