Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 20 February 2019 are:

Filmmaker David Lowe who is crowdfunding for a new multimedia production called ‘Confusing Them With Our Joy’.

Karla and Anna are two 14-year-old school girls from Denmark who have written a song about climate change, called ‘Simple Change’. Lene Foghsgaard talks with them via Skype.

The Bystander Effect: We play an excerpt of the presentation the American psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon held via video-link from New York at the National Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne on 8 February 2019.

Colin Mockett takes a look at the Paris Agreements and how certain countries step up to the challenge of reaching its targets by boosting energy efficiency and banning petrol cars and coal, while Australia is shamefully ignoring its commitments.

More info and videos below on this page.

“We have a huge crisis, and it needs a huge solution…”
~ Margaret Klein Salamon, American psychologist and executive director of The Climate Mobilization

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 255 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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Margaret Klein Salamon’s presentation in full

 #CLIMATEEMERGENCY: 

Margaret Klein Salamon:
The Bystander Effect and how we break it

The excerpt of Margaret Klein Salamon’s presentation which we play in The Sustainable Hour

» CNN – 25 February 2019:
Humans are frogs in hot water of climate change, research says
“The extreme weather that comes with climate change is becoming the new normal, so normal that people aren’t talking about it as mu...

The world is changing fast. If we don’t keep track of the changes, we lose out on the opportunities we have right in front of our nose to transform, transition, change and improve our city, our homes and our lives.

Knowing what is happening in the rest of the world helps us realise what can be achieved – it reminds us that real positive change is not just some distant dream. Out there, others are already proving that it is possible.

During the last months, Colin Mockett has been helping us with this – keeping track – as he generously shares his global outlook and knowledge with us and our listeners in the beginning of each Sustainable Hour on 94.7 The Pulse.

These are some of Mockett’s world view reports and global outlook commentaries:

20 February 2019: How the world is tracking with the Paris Agreement

In July 2017 French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot announced a plan to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles in France by 2040 as part of the Paris Agreement. Hulot also stated that France would no longer use coal to produce electricity after 2022 and that up to €4 billion will be invested in boosting energy efficiency.

» The Independent – 6 July 2017:
France will ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 

To reach the agreement’s emission targets, Norway will ban the sale of petrol- and diesel-powered cars by 2025

» The Independent – 4 June 2016:
Norway to ‘completely ban petrol powered cars by 2025’

The Netherlands will do the same by 2030.

» Eletrek.co – 10 October 2017:
The Dutch government confirms plan to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2030

Electric trains running on the Dutch national rail network are already entirely powered by wind energy.

» The Guardian – 11 January 2017:
Dutch electric trains become 100% powered by wind energy 

The House of Representatives of the Netherlands passed a bill in June 2018 mandating that by 2050 the Netherlands will cut its 1990 greenhouse-gas emissions level by 95% — exceeding the Paris Agreement goals. [www.volkskrant.nl]

» UNFCCC secretariat – December 2015:
Paris Agreement, FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1 (PDF)

» The Conversation AU – 26 February 2019:
Eighteen countries showing the way to carbon zero
“Reducing emissions doesn’t have to conflict with a growing economy, as these 18 developed nations show.”

» The Wuppertal Institute – 9 January 2019:
Ten Country Reports on Ambitious Climate Policy
“The sum of greenhouse gas emission reductions from Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) is...

Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 13 February 2019 are two first-time councillors of the Greater Geelong City Council: Cr Sarah Mansfield, Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Portfolio, and Cr Stephanie Asher, Chair of the Planning Portfolio. They talk about their achievements in the 15 months since election, and about what happened to the ‘Clever and Creative’ 30-year future vision’ for Geelong. Though they admit climate change is not a top agenda priority at Council meetings, they also give clear direction as to how the community holds the key to change that — if we want to.

Excerpt from the interview with Cr Mansfield and Cr Asher

“The way to make an impact is to be polite, be persistent and be organised.”
~ Stephanie Asher, Councillor, City of Greater Geelong

Colin Mockett‘s World View takes a look at the statistics on natural disasters in Australia: What is the cost?

We play a clip from the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne where Greta Thunberg was opening speaker at the Great Debate event. The songs are Prince Ea‘s ‘Man vs Earth’, and Missy Higgins‘ ‘The Difference’. More info below.
 

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BBC London’s report from the school strike for climate on Friday

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 #CLIMATEEMERGENCY #FRIDAYSFORFUTURE #CLIMATESTRIKE: 

Greta spoke in Melbourne via videolink from Stockholm

Greta’s presentation at the National Sustainable Living Festival

Via a live video link from Stockholm to Melbourne, Greta Thunberg was the opening speaker at a sold-out Great Debate event at the

" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Sustainable Living Festival in Australia on 8 February 2019.

While standing in front of the Parliament in Stockholm, and with a tv-crew from BBC waiting for their turn, she appeared relaxed and smiling on the screens in a hall of a 400-person audi...

In a climate context, this is breaking news: Australians now talk about the climate emergency – even around the BBQ.

2019 gave Australia a summer where the climate emergency for the first time is no longer a taboo to talk about at social gatherings. This happened because climate change changed. Now it is beginning to become something we can feel on our bodies when we go outside and even more shockingly, we see it on our screens – these terribly sad images of disastrous numbers of climate-killed fish, horses and cows on the daily news.

Next question is whether it will also give us a climate election, when Australians go to the polls in a few months.

That’s what we talk about in The Sustainable Hour on 6 February 2018.

Suzie Brown, co-founder of Australian Parents for Climate Action, talks about her fears for her five-year-old daughter, and how the new fast-growing organisation intends to influence the coming election.

We play a recording of 18-year-old Torquay resident Alex Marshall‘s speech at Toastmasters on the climate emergency, of Councillor Craig Simmons from Oxford City Council in the United Kingdom, a clip from the massive #Youth4Climate school strike in Belgium – quote from speaker: “So yes, we skip school, but you skip the fucking planet!” – and with the climate action-oracle from Stockholm, Greta Thunberg, as well as an excerpt from ABC’s program Q&A on 4 February 2019, where the panel with Greens MP Adam Bandt and the two independent MPs Julia Banks and Andrew Wilkie, among others, confirmed that, yes, it seems very likely that this next election will be on climate change.

Colin Mockett presents his World View, where he draws a comparison between the approach of several country’s being taken to meeting the climate change target. This week Colin compares the UK with Australia.

Mik Aidt, journalist of many years, who has been reporting from over 50 countries during his career, is excited about the new ways the Australian community is getting engaged and beginning to actually Be the Difference. Don’t start mocking those who don’t get it or who refuse to get involved. Embrace the difference and enjoy the ride together with those many new people who have come on board. With the federal election coming, this is a perfect opportunity to widen the conversation about the climate emergency, he says.

On 28 January 2019, Oxford City Council unanimously backed a climate emergency motion. 

“We’ve just had a historic vote at Oxford City Council – we declared a climate emergency. It’s just the first step in a long journey to actually reduce our carbon emissions, so that means looking at every single policy, every single decision we make, every single funding decision we make, and actually focus all our efforts now on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
~ Craig Si...

A sustainable hour with Damien Cole where he announces that he is running as an independent for the seat of Corangamite in the upcoming federal election.

In the 2018 Victorian state election, he ran as independent candidate for South Barwon.

We also play an extract from Dr David Suzuki‘s interview with Sydney-based podcaster Kerwin Rae, a statement by Swedish school strike activist Greta Thunberg, the song ‘We Don’t Have Time’ by Sustainable Soundtracks featuring Adam Baptiste, and ‘Red Moon’ by Missy Higgins.

“We must have development with values, integrating economic prosperity with social well being and our natural environment.”
~ Damien Cole, independent candidate

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Image from Damien Cole’s Facebook page

“A voice for our community”

Damien Cole aspires to be an elected community representative for social and environmental change.

As a team member of a larger community mobilisation, he says he “wants to give back.” His approach is to use the blueprint developed at Torquay and galvanise various groups into alliances, formed in their respective communities.

During the 2018 state election, Cole wrote on his Facebook page:

“Have you ever felt angry at state of our political system? Shook your head at new policies brought into place? Looked on the news and thought ‘I don’t trust what this politician is saying’?

Well I can tell you I have done that too many times to count… And I’ve had enough!” (…)

“The reason I’m running is simple, our community is in trouble and something needs to be done.

Our environment is degrading at an alarming rate, house prices are going through the roof and developers are cramming more and more people into our communities with very little thought of the social and cul...

Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 30 January 2019 are:

[07:45] Lachlan Magee, energy solutions manager at Choice Solar, which is a “one stop shop for your energy requirements” – an end-to-end solar supplier. With 7,500 clients it is one of the largest energy broking firms in the country, connecting investors with energy projects and companies, it means they are able to work with a number of energy providers to negotiate and achieve optimum power rates, network tariffs and create results for their energy-using customers, both industry and residential.

[29:30] Luke Taylor, director of the National Sustainable Living Festival, which is on all through February in Melbourne. 2019 celebrates 20 years for this event, with this year’s theme being ‘Disruption’, and it is again a jam packed program. The Big Weekend is on 8 to 11 February.

[37:20] Deborah Punton from Greensong Ecopsychology holds workshops on ecopsychology and is a facilitator with ClimateForChange. She thinks we need to look at a variety of perspectives to educate and support emotional states in relation to the climate disruption.
Deb and fellow artist Carolyn work with the medium of used plastic to help understand our inner feelings. The artwork outcome of a workshop in St Kilda on 6 February will be exhibited at the Sustainable Living Festival during the Great Local Lunch at Federation Square on Sunday 10 February.

[01:10] We start the hour with Colin Mockett’s World View. Today, Colin talks about hydrogen as an energy source: Is it right for Australia?

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 251 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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Over 30 000 schoolchildren on strike in Belgium today. #schoolstrike4climate #FridaysForFuture #climatestrike https://t.co/40ByaeyM4w— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 31,

Highlights from the livestream-hour #FridaysForFuture at Waurn Ponds – duration: 19 minutes

Climate change is a political choice. The failure of our lawmakers to limit climate-wrecking emissions is now confronting us all with an existential threat that is not going to go away any time soon.

Neither is Caroline Danaher.

She has launched a Greta-inspired ‘I’ll-just-sit-here-with-my-sign’ campaign, where she encourages like-minded concerned Australians to make their presence felt in front of parliamentarians’ offices:

Place yourself right in the face of these politicians who currently – according a new report from the World Economic Forum – are sleepwalking straight into a catastrophe.

In a call for the Australian government to take emergency action on the climate crisis, every Friday Caroline Danaher and whoever else joins her on the day sit at a table right in front of the office of their local member of the federal parliament: Sarah Henderson, member for Corangamite, who has her office in Waurn Ponds in the outskirts of Geelong.

To learn more about this ‘FridaysForFuture’ initiative, The Sustainable Hour’s Jackie Matthews visited Caroline at her ‘climate action basecamp’ on Friday 25 January 2019, and with a mobile phone, Matthews produced her first one-hour live Facebook-streaming right there on the spot.

The video above on this page is a 19-minute excerpt of the hour. We’ve also produced two shorter versions for circulation on social media, which are 2 minutes and 5 minutes.

Caroline Danaher explains how the idea came about:

“Getting involved takes time. It took me at least two months before I knew what I wanted to do. I felt that rallies for climate action were ok, but I also remembered with the protests against the Vietnam war, it took of thousands of people rallying before the government made any change. Rallies can do great things, but they don’t take place every week, and I felt it needed to be a persistent presence – that you’re saying: “I’m not just thinking about this even once a month, I’m thinking about it every week, because its so important.” 

Greta Thunberg was 15 years old then, and I thought I connected with her because I’m 75. So initially, I thought I’d go to the State Parliament in Melbourne and sit outside, like Greta does in Stockholm. But then I thought, “That’s stupid, I’m not going to do that coming all the way from the Bellarine Peninsula, that’s ridiculous! And then I thought I’d go to the parliament in Canberra, which was even more ridiculous… But then I thought, “No, I can sit outside my own local MP’s office.” It’s not that hard to do. I would like to come by bus, but I have a table and chairs, so that if anyone likes to come and sit and talk about Socrates, or anybody else, and climate change, and what we feel about it, and how angry we are, and how worried we are… So I come by car.

I didn’t know if I could do it, but in fact, acting is the best thing that you can possibly do, and I think Abigail would agree with me…” 

Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 23 January 2018 where we celebrate our 250th show are:

• Sue Constable who is an Ocean Grove mum and teacher organising Earthfest at Star of the Sea Primary Ocean Grove on 15 February between 4pm and 8:30pm. A fun event combining the recycle message with music.

• Caroline Danaher, 76-year-old climate activist, who took inspiration from 16-year-old Greta Thunberg‘s school strike action and now sits every Friday outside the office of her local federal member of parliament.

We also discuss the new survey about Geelong’s transportation system, and play a clip of Anthony Gleeson, who was a guest on show number 1 and is now a presenter. Tony covers his journey of the 250 programs.

We play a video clip with the world’s 16-year-old climate action hero and oracle Greta Thunberg, which was played for the guests attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, we re-listen to the song ‘Oil and Gasoline’ as performed in our Sustainable Studio by local artist Wayne Jury, Formidable Vegetable Sound System, who will be performing at Earthfest in Ocean Grove, give us ‘Change’.

“When injustice becomes law, nonviolent resistance becomes duty”
~ Petra Kelly, co-founder of the German Green Party, 1979

Jackie’s first trial with live-streaming on Facebook

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Earthfest in Ocean Grove

Friday 15 February 2019 at 4:00–8:30pm at Ocean Grove Community Park, 70 Presidents Avenue, Ocean Grove

Earthfest is a one-day community event held at Ocean Grove Park featuring music, art, community groups, food stalls and more. This will be a fun community event with something for everyone, hoping to inspire a more sustainable and connected community.

Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 16 January 2019 are:

• Maxine Bazeley is in the early stages of labour – with contractions every 10 minutes as we speak on the phone. Her dedication to reducing waste is not stopping her from sharing valuable tips to our listeners. She explains how she has nested sustainably in preparation for her first baby. As the Marie Kondo revolution transpires through social media, Maxine is at the forefront of this phenomenon by not being an over-consumer. At 40 weeks and four days pregnant… yep: Maxine has not bought one thing brand new for her new bub. Her home only has second hand goods.
The whole thing with the ‘Kondo clean out’ is that people over-consume in the first place. Are all these people who are cleaning out then not going to over-purchase again? – or will they have to be kondo-cleaning out again in 12 months time? Something for our listeners to think about.

• Hadassah Djordan talks mindful consumption, sustainable fashion and ethical clothing with our roving reporter Lene Foghsgaard – the seventh segment of her series, ‘Sustainable People’. Hadassah Jordan owns the store ‘Frankie’s Story’ in South Melbourne Market which sells clothing and accessories for both children and adults that is both ethical and ecological. The store is named after Hadassah Jordans daughter, Frankie. It all started with her. The vision and wish to provide mindful clothing for children

• Helen McCosker, co-organiser of National Regenerative Agriculture Day which is on 14 February 2019, St Valentine’s Day. Helen and her husband Mike are farmers in New South Wales. They are passionate about soil and soil health, and they embrace regenerative agriculture to achieve this.
Back in 2015, they organised community concerts to assist with the wellbeing of people in country areas. Now they have set up a charity, ‘What would love do’. The aim of this charity is to provide longer-term solutions to drought-torn rural communities. On Valentine’s Day they are reaching out to the nation and making people more aware of where their food comes from.

• Lauren, Anissa and Bec – three young Front Line Action on Coal (FLAC) activists, interviewed immediately after they had run a very successful day of non-violent direct action training with around 40 participants in Melbourne in December 2018. They talk about why they do such training, how they feel the training day went, and why they think non-violent direct action is important in affecting change.

“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
~ Pete Seeger, American singer

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Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 9 January 2018 are:

Melanie Humphrey: Boomerang Bags
When Melanie Humphrey arrived in Geelong about 12 months ago, she knew no-one. But she was keen to get a Boomerang Bag group going in Norlane, and in doing this, she has created her own community. Melanie got involved with Transition Streets. The coordinator of the initiative, Monica Winston, encouraged her to apply for a council sustainability grant which to Melanie’s surprise and great joy came through: She was a successful recipient of $3,000. With this grant she’ll buy sewing machines, an overlocker, lots of second hand material, cotton thread, and labels for the bags. Not content with just this, she has all sorts of sustainability ideas for her sewing group.

Lane Crockett: Impact Investment Group
Lane Crockett has been a champion of renewable energy for many years – he has headed up a wind energy company but became disenchanted by the inconsistency of government policy on climate and the associated uncertainty which this caused his business. So five years ago, he moved to impact investment where he has been able to raise funds from people who want their money to do no harm. Here he has been able to set up many renewable energy projects. He plans to move into funding other CO2 emission reduction and drawdown projects like regenerative farming.
See a transcript of the interview below on this page.
» Home page: www.impact-group.com.au

Kim Drew: Op Shop Sacred Heart
In our Sustainable People series, we interview Kim Drew, manager of Op Shop Sacred Heart in Clarendon Street in Melbourne – the flagship of the nine Sacred Heart Missions Op Shops in Melbourne. More info below. » Home page: www.sacredheartmission.org

Farm Stay at SageFarm – images from booking.com

Chris Balazs: Farm Stay
Farmer and entrepreneur Chris Balazs explains about the newly renovated house at Sage Farm which is rented out to visitors as an opportunity to explore the farm and for the kids to run around.
» See more on www.booking.com
» Sage Farm’s home page: www.sagebeef.com.au

We also talk about the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne during February, and about Extinction Rebellion Australia – and we play the two youtube-clips with Noam Chomsky and Barwon Water, which you can see below.

The songs we play are: ‘Sun Banditos’ by SolarEdge from 2017, and the Vietnamese all-star recording of ‘Rise for Climate’ – ‘Dung Lên Vi Khi Hâu’

“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
~ Pete Seeger, American singer

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 248 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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