In the 16th episode of The Regenerative Hour, Sara Schmude from Impact Ag Partners in New South Wales, Australia, talks about the growing impact of regenerative agriculture in the country and around the world.

Sara has been involved in community development via regenerating the land for many years. Her passion for this as a way of surviving the climate emergency shines brightly. Her and two of her adjoining neighbours work their farms as a co-operative, and they are pioneers in this field in Australia. They are all committed to regenerative farming practices, and they share the work as well as their equipment.

→ The Facebook group Sara Schmude started two years ago – where 11,000 people now are sharing ideas, knowledge and experience – is called the Regenerative Agriculture Group

“Why can’t we do this collectively and get a better outcome for our land?”~ Sara Schmude, in The Regenerative Hour

Geoff Lawton: Permaculture Online

After the interview with Sara, we listen to two excerpts from Geoff Lawton‘s extensive and inspirational video production about permaculture.

First “Permaculture: Positive Change for a World in Crisis” – and then Part 3 of a series of videos on DiscoverPermaculture.com called Permaculture’s Origin Story: Mollison’s PDM. Oh, and Nature

There is so much we can learn, and people like Geoff Lawton is putting it all out there. As long as we have a corona-lockdown, if there ever was a good time to get started, it would be now.

Farming Sustainably with Regenerative Agriculture – Restoring Paradise

This short documentary film was produced in New Zealand in 2017

“Regenerative agriculture offers a future for sustainable farming of meat in line with nature’s needs, by using holistic management and organic/biodynamic practices and even sequestering carbon in the soil – so important in our response to our climate crisis. At Mangarara, in New Zealand’s beautiful Hawke’s Bay, Greg Hart and his family are in the process of restoring 1500 acres of land, conventionally farmed for over 150 years, into the paradise it once was.” 

Just a couple of days ago, Happen Films released its latest documentary film on youtube, called “Incredibly Abundant 1-Acre Permaculture Homestead Tour – Limestone Permaculture Farm Revisit”

→ Happen Film’s channel on Youtube

Meet regenerative agriculture coach Jono Frew

Happen Film lockdown podcastHappen Films just started a new podcast, both on youtube and in your podcast player, “Community Resilience in a Time of Pandemic with Artist as Family” is the title of their first episode.

From a university activist to the CEO of our Regions Alliance – a Half Hour of Power with Elaine Carbines about her passion for protecting the environment in everything we do.

Elaine Carbines’ work as a true environmental and conservation warrior suddenly became headline news when she was appointed a Member of Order for her significant service to conservation and the environment in the Australia Day Honours 2020.

Elaine is the current CEO of Geelong Region Alliance, G21, a formal alliance of government, business and community organisations, but recently announced that she will step down after 10 years in the executive chair, concluding her time with G21 on 7 August 2020.

In this Bonus Sustainable Hour edition, we give you a glimpse of how Elaine’s environmental journey started, where she has been, and where she is headed. The G21 Region has been lucky to have Elaine at the forefront of many environmental issues that we have faced along her journey.

Elaine manages to fit her expansive career into just half an hour. Her determination, passion and drive for the environment is inspirational, and we at The Sustainable Hour wish her all the best in her future endeavours. Rather than “The Sustainable Hour”, this is A Half Hour of Sustainable Power. 

“Every politician I know is saying we have to listen to the science [re: COVID-19]. I’m hoping they say the same thing about climate change when this is over, because there has been too many who havn’t been prepared to access the science, in my opinion, so far.”~ Elaine Carbines, CEO, Geelong Region Alliance, G21

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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

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 t...

From a university activist to the CEO of our Regions Alliance – a Half Hour of Power with Elaine Carbines about her passion for protecting the environment in everything we do.

Elaine Carbines’ work as a true environmental and conservation warrior suddenly became headline news when she was appointed a Member of Order for her significant service to conservation and the environment in the Australia Day Honours 2020.

Elaine is the current CEO of Geelong Region Alliance, G21, a formal alliance of government, business and community organisations, but recently announced that she will step down after 10 years in the executive chair, concluding her time with G21 on 7 August 2020.

In this Bonus Sustainable Hour edition, we give you a glimpse of how Elaine’s environmental journey started, where she has been, and where she is headed. The G21 Region has been lucky to have Elaine at the forefront of many environmental issues that we have faced along her journey.

Elaine manages to fit her expansive career into just half an hour. Her determination, passion and drive for the environment is inspirational, and we at The Sustainable Hour wish her all the best in her future endeavours. Rather than “The Sustainable Hour”, this is A Half Hour of Sustainable Power. 

“Every politician I know is saying we have to listen to the science [re: COVID-19]. I’m hoping they say the same thing about climate change when this is over, because there has been too many who havn’t been prepared to access the science, in my opinion, so far.”~ Elaine Carbines, CEO, Geelong Region Alliance, G21

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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

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 t...

Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no 309 on 15 April 2020 are:

Nerida Thompson from Neighbours United for Climate Action and Newlands Parents for Climate Action speaks about their Community Climate Action Series, which has become an online series of webinars due to the coronavirus lockdown. This group of friends and neighbours in the Newlands area in Melbourne have developed a series of workshops that are now open to everyone who wants to work at becoming more connected and resilient. Find more info about their online workshops below.

Colin Long from the Victorian Trades Hall Council is manager of Just Transitions for Workers. He tells us about an exciting new project which involves a collaboration of unions, social enterprises and green groups to create an energy provider called Cooperative Power. Their aim is to democratise and decentralise energy use.

AFL player Jasper Pittard is a defender for the North Melbourne Kangaroos. He talks about why he thinks climate-concerned elite sports people should use their privileged position and influence to talk publicly about their concerns and call for real action on climate.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook report covers two areas today: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has agreed to cut the production of oil to make up for the decrease in oil use during the Covid-19 crisis, and this could have an impact on the use of electric transport of all kinds, and secondly, a United Nations report points out that while world-wide carbon emissions have dropped during the pandemic, it is crucial that we don’t return to “business as usual” as part of the recovery period. This will have to focus on people’s and the planet’s overall wellbeing, so positive job-creating programs for the environment have to be continually put in front of our pollies now.

Mik then takes us back to the tunnel and refers to examples of groups that are standing up for a clean and green snap-back from the pandemic.

Don’t forget that next week is Earth Week, and an important local part of this is the Tree poem competition, which ends on Earth Day, Wednesday 22 April. Read more about how you can take part below. We look forward to being part of it all, and until then, we’ll do all we can to be the difference!

“It is not complicated what needs to be done. Look through the resources available. There are heaps of good things happening in this space, so the more people we can get on board the better.”~ Jasper Pittard, AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos defender

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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

Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no 309 on 15 April 2020 are:

Nerida Thompson from Neighbours United for Climate Action and Newlands Parents for Climate Action speaks about their Community Climate Action Series, which has become an online series of webinars due to the coronavirus lockdown. This group of friends and neighbours in the Newlands area in Melbourne have developed a series of workshops that are now open to everyone who wants to work at becoming more connected and resilient. Find more info about their online workshops below.

Colin Long from the Victorian Trades Hall Council is manager of Just Transitions for Workers. He tells us about an exciting new project which involves a collaboration of unions, social enterprises and green groups to create an energy provider called Cooperative Power. Their aim is to democratise and decentralise energy use.

AFL player Jasper Pittard is a defender for the North Melbourne Kangaroos. He talks about why he thinks climate-concerned elite sports people should use their privileged position and influence to talk publicly about their concerns and call for real action on climate.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook report covers two areas today: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has agreed to cut the production of oil to make up for the decrease in oil use during the Covid-19 crisis, and this could have an impact on the use of electric transport of all kinds, and secondly, a United Nations report points out that while world-wide carbon emissions have dropped during the pandemic, it is crucial that we don’t return to “business as usual” as part of the recovery period. This will have to focus on people’s and the planet’s overall wellbeing, so positive job-creating programs for the environment have to be continually put in front of our pollies now.

Mik then takes us back to the tunnel and refers to examples of groups that are standing up for a clean and green snap-back from the pandemic.

Don’t forget that next week is Earth Week, and an important local part of this is the Tree poem competition, which ends on Earth Day, Wednesday 22 April. Read more about how you can take part below. We look forward to being part of it all, and until then, we’ll do all we can to be the difference!

“It is not complicated what needs to be done. Look through the resources available. There are heaps of good things happening in this space, so the more people we can get on board the better.”~ Jasper Pittard, AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos defender

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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

Carbon consultant Heidi Fog sent a letter to her friends and family in Denmark. Subject: ‘Emergency call and solutions from Australia’. It provided 10 suggestions for doable ways to cut your own individual carbon footprint in half, as the climate scientists have told us we need to do before 2030.

PREFACE AND PERSPECTIVEHeidi Fog wrote her 10 suggestions in the light of the scientific warning that humanity needs to half its carbon emissions during the 2020s, and had been inspired by Gene Blackley’s Drawdown Australia presentation at Geelong Library in March 2020. In October 2018, the United Nations’ panel of climate scientists, the IPCC, issued a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C. The scientists had found that,

“…limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” ~ Global Warming of 1.5ºC, special report, IPCC

The report found that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities, and it clarified to the world’s leaders that “global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.” Remaining emissions would then “need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air.”

That is what the scientists tell us needs to happen. The rest is up to us and the leaders we elect.

HEIDI FOG’S EMAIL TO HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN DENMARK:

Emergency call and solutions from Australia

“Good morning to all

You are probably all busy with absorbing the CV-19 news and the changes that it brings. I hope you all are okay and remain safe.

For some time I have been writing on an email for you about our shared climate. The climate issue has not gone away even though it has slipped out of the media over the past few weeks. The imbalance is here to stay for many years to come because you, I and those we know have consumed too much.

You have probably seen images of the bushfires in Australia which have burned areas that are larger than all of Denmark. That is all animals, all people, all infrastructure… Gone. In many places, they will not return. The fire was too hot, caused too much damage. Most people could drive, sail, and fly away from the affected areas, but the animals could not, including all birds, because it was too hot.

Here in our city, my children and I received our share of climate refugees, and for a longer period we had to stay indoors due to the air pollution coming from fires over 300 kilometres away with such intensity that we could not see our neighbours’ houses for smoke. At times we wondered if there were fires burning in our neighbourhood as the visibility and air quality were so poor.

Some of you have followed my journey as an environmental consultant. Despite the science and our individual observa...

Carbon consultant Heidi Fog sent a letter to her friends and family in Denmark. Subject: ‘Emergency call and solutions from Australia’. It provided 10 suggestions for doable ways to cut your own individual carbon footprint in half, as the climate scientists have told us we need to do before 2030.

PREFACE AND PERSPECTIVEHeidi Fog wrote her 10 suggestions in the light of the scientific warning that humanity needs to half its carbon emissions during the 2020s, and had been inspired by Gene Blackley’s Drawdown Australia presentation at Geelong Library in March 2020. In October 2018, the United Nations’ panel of climate scientists, the IPCC, issued a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C. The scientists had found that,

“…limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” ~ Global Warming of 1.5ºC, special report, IPCC

The report found that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities, and it clarified to the world’s leaders that “global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.” Remaining emissions would then “need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air.”

That is what the scientists tell us needs to happen. The rest is up to us and the leaders we elect.

HEIDI FOG’S EMAIL TO HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN DENMARK:

Emergency call and solutions from Australia

“Good morning to all

You are probably all busy with absorbing the CV-19 news and the changes that it brings. I hope you all are okay and remain safe.

For some time I have been writing on an email for you about our shared climate. The climate issue has not gone away even though it has slipped out of the media over the past few weeks. The imbalance is here to stay for many years to come because you, I and those we know have consumed too much.

You have probably seen images of the bushfires in Australia which have burned areas that are larger than all of Denmark. That is all animals, all people, all infrastructure… Gone. In many places, they will not return. The fire was too hot, caused too much damage. Most people could drive, sail, and fly away from the affected areas, but the animals could not, including all birds, because it was too hot.

Here in our city, my children and I received our share of climate refugees, and for a longer period we had to stay indoors due to the air pollution coming from fires over 300 kilometres away with such intensity that we could not see our neighbours’ houses for smoke. At times we wondered if there were fires burning in our neighbourhood as the visibility and air quality were so poor.

Some of you have followed my journey as an environmental consultant. Despite the science and our individual observa...

Our guest in The Tunnel Hour – sorry… The Sustainable Hour on 8 April 2020 is Dawn Barrington, a folk singer and song writer based in Denmark in Western Australia, who writes songs about climate change and refugee justice. We talk about both topics from a big picture point of view – and listen to ‘Coffee My Dear’.

We play an excerpt from the debate at a council meeting in Shepparton last week, where councillors were voting on whether or not to declare a climate emergency. Four wanted to do it, while four others didn’t think it was a good idea. More about the outcome below.

Colin talks about a new report from ClimateWorks, ‘Decarbonising Futures’, that shows how Australia can achieve those carbon emissions reductions which are required across all industry sectors to limit global warming to below the 1.5°C degree target under the Paris Agreement, which Australia has committed itself to.

And Mik talks about the ‘World Happiness Report’ from the United Nations, which highlights the importance of social trust: Nations “with higher levels of social trust and connections are more resilient in the face of natural disasters and economic crises, because fixing rather than fighting becomes the order of the day.”

Covid-19 has added a new dimension to this. The co-ordinated international response to this pandemic has brought us all closer together. We wish you a happy Easter staycation – be the difference.

“From a big picture point of view it is no longer about particular things we can do as individuals any more, it is no longer separate issues – it is all coming in to one. It is about a philosophy that we need to all take on, and for all humanity to ask: what is the right thing to do for Mother Earth, for all us? We know in our hearts that are breaking the rules of Mother Earth. We know that.”~ Dawn Barrington, in The Sustainable Hour

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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

“We are at what we used to term a watershed. This is a time when we have been forced by circumstances to stop and think, and then choose a new direction. We have got to make it obvious to all of our leaders thatthe new direction has got to include the health of the planet.”~ Colin Mockett, in The Sustainable Hour

Our guest in The Tunnel Hour – sorry… The Sustainable Hour on 8 April 2020 is Dawn Barrington, a folk singer and song writer based in Denmark in Western Australia, who writes songs about climate change and refugee justice. We talk about both topics from a big picture point of view – and listen to ‘Coffee My Dear’.

We play an excerpt from the debate at a council meeting in Shepparton last week, where councillors were voting on whether or not to declare a climate emergency. Four wanted to do it, while four others didn’t think it was a good idea. More about the outcome below.

Colin talks about a new report from ClimateWorks, ‘Decarbonising Futures’, that shows how Australia can achieve those carbon emissions reductions which are required across all industry sectors to limit global warming to below the 1.5°C degree target under the Paris Agreement, which Australia has committed itself to.

And Mik talks about the ‘World Happiness Report’ from the United Nations, which highlights the importance of social trust: Nations “with higher levels of social trust and connections are more resilient in the face of natural disasters and economic crises, because fixing rather than fighting becomes the order of the day.”

Covid-19 has added a new dimension to this. The co-ordinated international response to this pandemic has brought us all closer together. We wish you a happy Easter staycation – be the difference.

“From a big picture point of view it is no longer about particular things we can do as individuals any more, it is no longer separate issues – it is all coming in to one. It is about a philosophy that we need to all take on, and for all humanity to ask: what is the right thing to do for Mother Earth, for all us? We know in our hearts that are breaking the rules of Mother Earth. We know that.”~ Dawn Barrington, in The Sustainable Hour

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via iTunes or Stitcher

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

“We are at what we used to term a watershed. This is a time when we have been forced by circumstances to stop and think, and then choose a new direction. We have got to make it obvious to all of our leaders thatthe new direction has got to include the health of the planet.”~ Colin Mockett, in The Sustainable Hour

Can we turn the 2020s into ‘The Regenerative Decade’? In this series of talks 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.

While we are all sitting in Corona Tunnel, this is a perfect time to ask ourselves some basic questions about the way we live our lives, about our bigger goals in life, and about whether – once we come out of the tunnel – we’d want to change our course.

My guests in The Regenerative Hour no 14 have some suggestions: Margie Abbott, an author who is out with a new book titled ‘Cosmic Sparks – Igniting a re-enchantment with the sacred’, and singer Riya Sokol, who has written a ‘Thank you Coronavirus’ poem which has gone viral around the world.

Riya is followed by three youtube-videos – two of them by Prince Ea, and by the catholic priest Sean McDonagh about Pope Francis’ encyclical letter, Laudato Si. The videos are posted on this page below.

“Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and lured away by haste. We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.”~ Pope Francis, in a sermon delivered to an utterly empty St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Italy, on 27 March 2020

Igniting a re-enchantment with the sacred

Book of rituals based on Laudato Si’

Excerpt from the media release about Margie Abbott’s new book, ‘Cosmic Sparks’

“I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation that includes everyone, since the environment challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all”~ Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 14

In his encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, Pope Francis shows the grave consequences of our blindness to the sacred, living earth. He quotes with enthusiasm Francis of Assisi: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs” (Canticle of Brother Earth and Sister Moon).

The new book ‘Cosmic Sparks’ builds on the thesis that Earth is all we have. We come from Earth and unto Earth we shall return. The collection of rituals is about realising that Earth is sacred once and for all.

With a stunning richness of resources, these rituals call heart and body into the profound mystery of soul – not of human beings alone, but of Earth herself, with her accompanying elements of Air, Water and Fire. All the manifestations of grounded reality are here in one place, enough for years of learning to relate to our complex, cosmic world.

Margie Abbott has written and had published four other books: Igniting Sparks of Reconciliation and Compassion; Sparks of the Cosmos; Sparks of Life – three of them on ritual and the fourth Join the Circle, a Lectionary for Children.  

“Through this book,