www.echo.net.au/soap-box
MANDY NOLAN’S
SOAPBOX THE GIFT OF CORONA What if covid-19 is the solution we needed? What if the lessons we’ve learned from managing a global pandemic can save us from climate change? I hate to be that person who looks for the positive in a bleak situation, because I’m not meaning to minimalise or trivialise the 350 000 deaths worldwide as some sort of collateral damage in our rehearsal for change, but what if their deaths could mean something? What if we learnt. What if the radical changes we’ve made so quickly around the planet form the template for how to move to a new world order – a clean, green and economically-reformed approach that banishes the stain of our carbon footprint to the ether (speaking metaphorically)? What will this world even look like? In just three months global emissions have decreased by over 26 per cent. If that trend continued for three more quarters, would we be close to being emission-neutral? There were one million planes in the sky around the world every day. That was the case pre-COVID. Right now, one million planes are not in the sky. Sure it’s inconvenient, and disappointing if you were looking forward to a fabulous holiday. No skiing trips to Japan, no summer holiday in the Greek islands, no bike riding in the lavender fields in the South of France. Just you, where you are, right now. We have all been forced to make the changes that none of us wanted to. We have always wanted behaviour change to be someone else’s currency. Maybe it’s time to stop and smell the serenity! Let’s look at air travel as just one major change in human behaviour globally. In 2018, CO2 emissions from aviation passenger travel totalled 747 million tonnes. Considering that total carbon emissions from all human activity around the world, including agriculture and land use, is 43 billion tons annually, that’s a significant reduction. Couple this with a generalised reduction in car travel and industry, and cities like New Delhi and Seoul are experiencing more than a 60 per cent drop in PM 2.5 – the world’s deadliest air pollutant. Wuhan, where the virus originated, experienced its cleanest air quality on record through February and March, and LA had its longest ever stretch of clean air, finally meeting the UN’s air quality guidelines. You see, before the virus came along, corporations had been routinely killing people and our planet with the poisons of industry. Sanctioned by the need for endless economic growth, there has been little, if any, accountability. Forget worrying about the alleged impacts of 5G. Climate change continues to be the greatest threat to human and planetary health. The same emissions that are killing our planet are also killing us. Ambient air pollution (outdoor) kills over 4.2 million people each year. The World Health Organisation has data that shows nine out of ten people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants that lead to premature death. While I applaud the global response to the pandemic, I wonder, when it comes to climate change, why hasn’t this change come sooner? Every day that the pandemic restricts industries like travel we move close to economic crisis. The system is not robust. In fact, if the coronavirus has shown us one thing it’s that we live in an uncertain world, underwritten by an economy that at its foundations, and by its very nature, is characterised by fragility, not strength.
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THE CASSETTES ARE RAD
The Echo caught up with Marissa from The Cassettes to find out what’s been happening with these dynamic dancers! The Cassettes are taking Term Two off but are going to be back with a vengeance in Term Three. Marissa says, ‘I decided early to put The Cassettes on hold during COVID. We had a show ready for Brunswick Picture House, which cancelled, and in-person sweating and smiling together just isn’t the same online. But I’ve sent Cassettes Care Packages to our online community in the meantime – lounge room ‘80s dancing videos with myself and a fellow Cassettes teacher.’ Marissa has been spending the time working on her online 10 week self-discovery and -recovery course for creative, sensitive women. The first module just finished, and the next is due to start in a few weeks. ‘The first group has been a full class of 25 students from Australia, the US, and NZ – incredible, intelligent women aged 30–60yrs. In the live classes each week, there’s been almost 100% attendance – that’s unusual for an online course. It’s a fun and nourishing course and is properly helpful, bringing sparkles and confidence into real life. The course supports women to trust their own judgement and insights. That’s really important – the world needs to make room for more empowered women.’ To find out about Cassettes classes or shows, email riss@thecassettes.com.au And you can download a four steps to win the day like a She-Ra, morning routine – including a downloadable pdf with yoga affirmation video at www.radselfcare.me
STARS BY LILITH
ARIES: With Mars in Pisces behaving like a fog machine and Venus retrograde, arguments and misunderstandings could appear on this week’s menu. Good news? Mercury’s move into extra-sensitive Cancer makes it easier to negotiate touchy topics diplomatically. Which will work best by keeping communications simple and avoiding complicated arrangements or over-explaining. TAURUS: Mental Mercury’s in full fertile flow, but this week calls for empathy, so tread gently, because a heavy-hoofed approach could unintentionally offend. Remember that old habits – yours included – take time to break. This difficult cycle’s also rife with opportunity; though it may take reaching out to people you usually wouldn’t, before you find them. GEMINI: Two things about Venus retrograde in your sign: 1) She’s even more likely than usual to change her mind. 2) This isn’t an auspicious time for a style makeover. Better to focus on analytical Mercury bringing its expertise to bear on your local activities and finances for the coming couple of months. CANCER: Communicator planet Mercury arrives in your sign this week for an unusually long two and a half month sojourn, with the primary message of don’t rush it: in speaking, responding, or text. Because timing is everything, and right now with conditions in flux, information’s changing daily. Stay tuned…
SOUND CONNECTIONS: KIDS IN ISO Spending time with family, missing friends, a time for reflection, and ‘staying home with my new unicorn’ are just some of the pros and cons of COVID isolation that school students have shared with sound artist and composer, Brett Canning, for Lismore Quad and Lismore Regional Gallery’s Together/Alone project. Brett Canning asked 15 students, based in Northern NSW, ranging from kindergarten to Year 12, to make audio recordings responding to questions about how they are feeling, how they are connecting with family and the outside world, what community looks like for them at the moment, and what they are looking forward to doing, once restrictions ease. Brett combined their responses with sounds recorded in the Northern Rivers natural environment to create a delightful and insightful audio work called Sound Connections. ‘I wanted to give a voice to school students and encourage meaningful connection in this time of social distancing. I hope the students listening to the finished work can know that they are not alone in the way that they may feel at the moment,’ said Brett. You can listen to the work on www.lismorequad.org.au
GEMINI THE TWINS
Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto all in retrograde make this a week for reconsidering what love, money, workable strategies and karmic comeuppance mean to us… LEO: Mercury’s move into your soul territory of reflection and transition signals the start of a winter-long stretch of creativity and healing – a hibernatory time of taking a look, along with the rest of humanity, at what past patterns need deleting, what imbalances need correcting, what new opportunities are possible. VIRGO: In this week’s celestial chess moves, Virgo’s ruling planet Mercury heads into the position most likely to attract the people and resources, networks, and connections you need for forward motion. So reach out and get what you can in place during the next fortnight – before Mercury joins the rest of the retrograde brigade. LIBRA: There’s been an overload of mixed messages, conflicting data and polarising ideas doing the rounds recently. This week’s Mercury in the sign of gut instincts heralds a welcome change from being battered by questionable stats, bringing a pause – to revise and rethink – with the proviso of always checking sources before sharing or acting on them. SCORPIO: Mercury’s expansive move stretches your thinking like elastic, out of the box, into the bigger picture – though don’t expect others to immediately get on board with your visionary ideas. Give them time. And set aside the figures, graphs and fact checkers; Mercury in this position operates through instinct, intuition and body knowledge.
SAGITTARIUS: With cosmic communicator Mercury’s extended staycation organising your joint ventures, look who’s this week’s suave talker, smooth negotiator and sweet-deal maker. Keep up the momentum for the next fortnight, and by the time the quicksilver planet joins the retrograde parade you’ll have achieved something real. CAPRICORN: Mercury’s making it easier to speak from the heart this week, which has astral support for friendship repairs, partnership resets and/or relationship reboots. Also for negotiating win-win compromises, teaming up with compassionate, caring people, and perhaps sometime during the social planet’s extended visit, even collaborating with an old antagonist. AQUARIUS: After Mercury’s recent liploosening alignment, this week the messenger planet asks some pertinent questions concerning communication. Have yours been more heady, and less heartfelt lately? Have you been respectful? Could you be more kind? Are there any styles of expression you’ve graduated from and might be ready to release? PISCES: A brace of retrograde planets are supporting an overhaul of your tech sector, and Team Pisces would probably also be grateful for some extra appreciation. With Mercury speaking up and out through Pisceans, it’s a good week to upgrade your online presence,
This is something many have known for some time – that the current global economic system is unstable, unsustainable, and at odds with human and planetary health. It’s long been clear that the kind of change required to bring a halt to climate impacts can’t be achieved without a total implosion of our current economic system. It has to break. And this coronavirus might just be the thing to do it. It’s not just the virus that makes us sick. A thriving economy makes us sick. The economy has been seen as a given. There is a sense that the way it is, is the way it has to be. We’ve seen that governments can change. That industry can change. That people can change. In this bleak time of little or no certainty, when I think about the opportunities created by this pandemic moving forward, it gives me hope. Governments have been forced to take advice from scientists, not corporations, or vested interests. Perhaps, if this trend continues after the pandemic is over, then true systemic change is on the horizon. And the good news is, the world is already half-way there. Perhaps in some strange way, that is the gift of COVID-19?
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lëƷ ǩǮǽ ǩǧǩǧ The Byron Shire Echo 21