The Climate Action Show  - August 9th 2021

Produced by Vivien Langford

ARE OUR LEADERS JUST "ACTING "ON CLIMATE?

Episode 3 Exploring "The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson

Guests:

Mark Spencer - Podcaster and Founder of Climactic Collective

Meg Clancy - Actor, Dancer and  Major Contributor to NITV

Lyn Bender - Psychologist and former Manager of Lifeline Melbourne Hope lies beyond latest climate shock therapy (eurekastreet.com.au)

Greta Thunberg - Founder of Fridays for Future and Cassandra to the Climate Movement  

(229) Austrian World Summit 2021 - Greta Thunberg Speech - YouTube

Kim Stanley Robinson and Naomi Klein at Rutgers University Institute for  Earth, Ocean and Atrmospheric Sciences.Kim Stanley Robinson Special Event - Rutgers EOAS

Music "Nada:" a tango from La Tabu.

This is a theatrical and intense episode. We use KS Robinson's novel as a springboard to explore the themes of being overwraught with insufficient leadership. What are the  many ways forward?

It starts with a dramatised reading of the chapter where the head of the ministry, Mary Murphy, is kidnapped by Frank. He is a man traumatised by the great Indian heatwave which left millions dead. As he paces her Zurich apartment she thinks

"His presence in her kitchen was all too much like one of her insomniac whirlpools of thought, as if she had stumbled into one of her nightmares while still awake, so that she couldn't get out of it."

Then the actors and I discuss with psychologist Lyn Bender how leaders must  accept these messengers from the climate frontlines and act with urgency, while remaining confident and resolute that we can repair the damage.

The second item is Greta Thunberg at the 2021 Vienna Climate Summit. She tells leaders that they are pretending to change, pretending to take the science seriously, pretending to wage war on fossil fuels while opening up new oil pipelines, gas fields and coal mines.

She says " The audience has grown wary, the show is over"

Thirdly we go to Rutgers University to hear the author, Kim Stanley Robinson , talking about  the hard things he had to say. The needle in the eye moments. Naomi Klein calls him a "possibilist" and talks about the sort of dystopian and escapist narratives we are  hard wired  for.  Are we fascinated by the billionaires aiming to colonise space because we were brought up on Noah's Ark? (229) Why Jeff Bezos’ Space Dream is Humanity's Nightmare | George Monbiot - YouTube

We learn about geo-engineering, how capitalism must change and how modern monetary theory can be used for good.

If  you haven't read the novel yet do try now. It is an easy way to look at the future and all the paths we could follow once we wake up.

Breaks for tango dancing courtesy of La Tabu. 

Breaking news after our broadcast. Here are some Greenpeace responses to the latest IPCC report launched at 6pm

Joseph Moeno-Kolio, Greenpeace Head of Pacific, said:

“The IPCC’s latest report leaves no doubt that the fossil fuel companies actively driving the climate crisis need to be stopped if Pacific people are to have any chance of living in safety and with some measure of dignity.”

“The climate change genie can’t go back into the bottle. It’s too late to reverse so much of the damage the mining and burning of coal, oil and gas have already done to our beautiful islands but the world needs to do everything in its power to stop the climate crisis before it ends our entire way of life.”

“There is a more than 50 per cent likelihood that 1.5 degrees of warming will be exceeded by the early 2030s under all scenarios. For a region already suffering the effects of 1.1 degrees of warming, this will be disastrous for our communities, our economies and our cultures.”

“Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met last week with Pacific leaders and committed to supporting the Pacific family. This report has found that if Morrison’s obsession with fossil fuels isn’t immediately ended, these words might one day be nothing more than an empty lament on the family tomb.”

“For years, Pacific leaders have been calling on the world to follow the science and act on the causes of global heating. This latest report only further vindicates the awful truth: if we continue to burn fossil fuels, we burn through any chance of a safe, prosperous future.”

David Ritter, CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“No more excuses and no more delays on climate change. This is decision time for every political and business leader in Australia. This is the issue on which you will be judged by history and by the children of Australia, whose futures are on the line.”

“The IPCC Working Group 1 report makes it clear that we are out of control and accelerating towards disaster. Only if we make deep, rapid emissions cuts including the complete phase out of climate-destroying coal, oil and gas do we have a chance of making it to a safer, habitable future powered by clean energy.”

“All decisions our leaders make from today must be informed by this knowledge. Any further expansion of our dangerous gas and coal industries is untenable. Australia must close all coal burning power stations by 2030 at the latest.

“We could have made emissions cuts decades ago that would have put us on a path to a safer future, but this was blocked by the vested interests of coal, oil and gas and the politicians who have subsidised and protected these big polluters.” 

“Australia is one of the most carbon intensive economies in the world, making an outsized contribution to the global crisis we face, and our leaders are obstructive in international negotiations.”

“As the biggest exporter of coal and gas in the world, Australia’s main export these days is climate damage. Our international trading partners, most of whom are moving rapidly to reduce emissions, will be putting increasing pressure on Australia’s leaders in the lead up to the COP26 Summit in November, with our country increasingly seen as a rogue state on climate.”

“If this report makes you feel angry, sad and afraid, that is because it is angering, saddening and frightening. Climate change is not an accident or a force of nature. It is caused primarily by the pollution produced by coal, oil and gas corporations.”

“We have a choice. We already have the renewable energy technology to make huge emissions cuts in our electricity system which will put us well on the path to a safer future, with many of our biggest and most trusted businesses already committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2025.”

“Now, as pressure builds on Australia’s leaders to reduce emissions, we can put an end to the fossil fuel industry holding the fortunes of our country to ransom and still choose the future we want.”