Save the planet? Preschoolers are ready! - a podcast by Anthony Gleeson, Jackie Matthews, Colin Mockett, Mik Aidt

Our first guest in The Sustainable Hour no. 395 on 29 December 2021 is agricultural economist Jim Crosthwaite. Jim has devoted a great amount of time this year researching the economics of fossil gas. He gives us insight to these findings. More can be found at Jim Crosthwaite scribblings.







Jim warns us about the greenwashing that so often accompanies statements from fossil fuel companies and has some suggestions on how communities and climate groups can collaborate to counteract it. A good example of this that he refers to is the Gas Free Victoria Statement. There is a need for a deeper level of knowledge about what governments and industry is doing and planning, and Jim calls for the establishment of a Research Team with members from the various climate activist groups which are involved in the anti-gas campaigning.







Our other guests are from Kardinia International College Preschool. That’s right, they are four and five years old. Supported by their teachers, Jennifer Gardner, Belinda Russell and Sally Shying, they proudly tell us what they have achieved during the year.







It’s hard not to be impacted emotionally by listening to students of such tender years displaying such commitment to “saving the world”. They proudly tell us how they have changed things in their school as part of their classes. We also hear them sing their rubbish rap and find out about their tooth brush drive.







We spoke with the Kardinia preschoolers in November and were so impressed by their commitment and enthusiasm that we decided to keep the recording for our last show of the year. We are really pleased to have made this contact with Kardinia and will follow it up in future shows.







We have committed to contacting the appropriate United Nations and government departments to see if they can use the Kardinia preschoolers as a case study to empower other preschools all over the world.







Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook is a new combined report from four groups: Climate Action Tracker, ClimateWorks Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund and World Resources Institute. They’ve pulled together threads from COP26 in Glasgow and concluded that to restrict global warming to the agreed 1.5° degree target, then rapid, far-reaching transformations must occur across every sector in the developed world.







In short, we will need to change how we power our homes and businesses, how we transport people and goods, grow our food, construct buildings, protect our forests and much more, bringing change and improvements to our diets, how we shop and live.







Andrew Steer, President and CEO of Bezos Earth Fund, said: “This report gives a clear-eyed view of the accelerated level of action needed this decade and beyond to keep the 1.5° degrees goal within reach.”







“The good news is that 2021 saw notable progress across some sectors and there is reason to believe a number of clean technologies may be on the cusp of rapid, widespread adoption. For instance, wind and solar power, as well as electric vehicles, have already begun being adopted at exponential rates.”







Globally the share of electricity generated from solar and wind has grown at an annual rate of 15 per cent over the last five years, and building new solar and wind energy capacity is now more cost-effective than generating electricity from exis...

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