Episode Seven: In Case of Emergency with Kelly O’Shanassy & David Ritter
Is 1.5 degrees of warming the cliff to the end of the world?
Is everything falling part?
Are we all to blame?
Can we solve this problem, even without the federal government?
It’s been a few weeks since latest IPCC report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was released by the United Nations. It’s been called a ‘code red’ for humanity, or to borrow a phrase from REM, the end of the world as we know it.
Those already in the know are pretty alarmed about this report, but many more of us frankly don’t have the headspace to even process information like this right now. We’re too overwhelmed trying to deal with lockdown life, the Delta variant and the many other crises of the world at present. So what’s this report really saying, what do we really need to understand, and what can we do about it?
We grabbed two of the best environment leaders we know to guide us through this: Kelly O’Shanassy is the CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation; David Ritter is the CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and a repeat guest on the show. Theirs is a candid conversation that cuts through the noise — offering energy and clarity, rather than more anxiety. An unmissable episode full of quotes that will stay with you, and a great one to share.
“It’s not game over, it’s game on.” -Kelly
“People are social animals and we have an innate propensity to good. Climate change is a crime that is being committed, not some ordained original sin of our species.” -David
“The future is not a linear extension of the past.” - Kelly
“Which politicians speak of the world with wonder and awe in their voices?” - David
Show notes
Things we mention:
International Agency Energy report on transitioning to renewable energy
Gloucester Sustainable Futures Festival (community festival David mentions from 2019) around the 9 pillars of Australia reMADE
ACF’s ‘Australia’s largest-ever climate poll’ and example media coverage (from The Sydney Morning Herald)
Campaigns to join:
Australian Conservation Foundation ‘Together We CAN’ campaign
Greenpeace Re-energise campaign
Recommendations:
“We are the people we’ve been waiting for: how to answer the question, ‘what can I do?’”
Sunburnt Country, Dr Joëlle Gergis
“IPCC climate report author: our final plea to the world,” by Dr Joëlle Gergis, The Saturday Paper (paywall)
The Great Disruption by Paul Gilding
"If” poem by Rudyard Kipling