EPISODE 113 FEATURES DAVID RITTER, CEO OF GREENPEACE AUSTRALIA PACIFIC
"We are at one of those pivotal moments when it feels like the world is coming undone," wrote David Ritter, CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific in a recent newsletter. "But the best of humanity comes out in moments of crisis. It's a phenomenon that we saw in the [recent Australian bush] fires, and which we are seeing again in the face of the pandemic."
Can we take this enforced pause to design a better way of relating to each other and the natural world? How can we use compassion in our activism? Where can we find solidarity in solitude?
This Episode is a must-listen and a balm for the soul at the increasingly bizarre time.
NOTES
NOVEL REFERENCES Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez was first published in Spanish in 1985, before tattered copies showed up in backpacks all over the world in different languages. There’s a weepy movie version starring Javier Bardem (who just so happens to be behind the eco-doco that David mentions -it’s a called Sanctuary). Find Spring by Ali Smith here. La Peste, or The Plague is a 1947 novel by the French-Algerian writer Albert Camus.
TP The Great Australian Toilet Roll Famine began in early March 2020, and swiftly degenerated into squabbles in the supermarket aisles.
Marine Serre Fall 2020
SOCIAL DISTANCING The more space between you and others, the harder it is for the virus to spread. As a result, governments all over the world are advising: “stay at home unless going out is absolutely necessary”, and introducing lockdowns and restrictions on social interactions.
“There is the rush towards to the story of the individual, but now is the time to focus on systems,” - David Ritter
HOMELESSNESS in the era of “shelter in place”. How are you supposed to do that, when you don’t have a place? Those who are more vulnerable bear the burden. Good news story: Homeless people are being temporarily accommodated in hotels. More here via the BBC. Bad one: Las Vegas, with hotels-a-plenty, taped off suitably distant squares in a carpark and ordered homeless people displaced from a shelter to sleep there. Horrific.
Despite the hardships, stress and strife, “There is a great coming together that is also true in this, people are looking out for each other I think now in ways that would have seemed foreign even a week and a half ago,” says David. He speaks of “a kind of neighbourliness that is being remembered.”
AIR Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra all took their turn of having the worst air in the world during the bushfire crisis of 2019/2020. Read Clare’s take on living through it here.
MALLACOOTA is a beach town in East Gippsland, Victoria that was ravaged by fire on New Year’s Day, 2020. More here.
THE LUCKY COUNTRY “The Lucky Country is a 1964 book by Donald Horne. The title has become a nickname for Australia and is generally used favourably, although the origin of the phrase was negative in the context of the book. Among other things, it has been used in reference to Australia's natural resources, weather, history, its early dependency of the British system, distance from problems elsewhere in the world, and other sorts of supposed prosperity.
Horne's intent in writing the book was to portray Australia's climb to power and wealth based almost entirely on luck rather than the strength of its political or economic system, which Horne believed was "second rate". In addition to political and economic weaknesses, he also lamented on the lack of innovation and ambition, as well as a philistinism in the absence of art, among the Australian population, viewed by Horne as being complacent and indifferent to intellectual matters. He also commented on matters relating to Australian puritanism, as well as conservatism, particularly in relation to censorship and politics.” Via Wikipedia
Photo by Kiran Ridley for Greenpeace
FIRST RESPONDERS Here’s the pic of the fireman we discuss on the podcast. “The grin both breaks your heart and makes your heart, right?” says David. Now in the time of #coronavirus, acts of collective thanks healthcare workers have been spreading across the globe. Case in point: the national clap for the NHS.
HOW WILL HISTORY REMEMBER AUSTRALIA’S PM SCOTT MORRISON? Some perspectives here, here and here.
DIRTY POWER is a piece of investigative work produced jointly by Greenpeace and Australian journalist Michael Webb.
IS COAL AUSTRALIA’S NUMBER ONE CONTRIBUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE, as David says? Yep. Coal is mined in every state of Australia. “When we think of big fossil-fuel-producing nations, it's usually Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and maybe Venezuela that spring to mind — but analysis by the Australia Institute measures fossil fuel exports according to their carbon dioxide-emissions potential. It ranks Australia as the world's third-biggest exporter behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia. Australia mines about 57 tonnes of CO2 potential per person each year, about 10 times the global average, and exports 7 per cent of the world's fossil fuel CO2 potential, the report found.” Via ABC here.
WOLLEMI PINES are the dinosaurs of the Australian tree world. Saved!
“SCIENCE SHOULD BE OUTSIDE OF POLITICS.” - DAVID RITTER
LESSONS FROM THE BUSHFIRES Writes David, “So many of the lessons that were meted out under the fire and smoke of spring and summer are now being reinforced by the impact of COVID-19:
We need media that is properly resourced, independent and accurate;
We need politicians telling the truth and acting in the public interest;
We need independent scientists and experts to whom decision makers listen and accord respect;
We need public health, social security and other institutions to give us the capacity to cope and respond to the need, as a decent society. Our lives depend on these things.”
The Guardian article by Ed Villarmy, written around the time of the Ebola outbreak, is here. It talks about how Camus’ novel was could be taken literally in times of plague, but : “Nowadays, I think, La Peste (its title in French) can tell the story of a different kind of plague: that of a destructive, hyper-materialist, turbo-capitalism.”
Read the story on planetary health by the Guardian’s environment editor John Vidal here.
CLEARER SKIES AHEAD? (Above) NASA satellite images of Wuhan with the visible cloud of toxic gas hanging over industrial powerhouses almost disappeared.
GREENPEACE was formed in 1971 by two Americans living in Canada - Irving and Dorothy Stowe. More here.
MUSIC is by Montaigne, who sang this special acoustic version of “Because I love You” from her album Glorious Heights, just for us.
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Clare & the Wardrobe Crisis team x