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Sustainability
2021 – Hints for living a sustainable life
Sustainability 2021 – an Echo supplement
www.echo.net.au Supplement editor: Aslan Shand Advertising manager: Angela Cornell Design & production: Ziggi Browning, Tirza Abb Front cover: Photo by Tree Faerie, design by Tirza Abb © 2021 Echo Publications Pty Ltd ABN 86 004 000 239 Village Way, Stuart Street, Mullumbimby Phone 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 Printed on recycled paper
Some Sustainability 2021 highlights: ▶ What can I do on climate? ▶ Time to care for country
page 26 page 27
▶ Take a look at ethical investing page 31 page 32 ▶ On track to three degrees page 37 ▶ Moving forward with solar ▶ Councils on climate action page 38–39 ▶ A sustainable farming future
page 40
The time to take action is now Aslan Shand There are signs that governments around the world might actually start to get serious on addressing climate change. But it has taken a long fight by generations of scientists, activists and, ultimately, children who had no vote, just their voices and actions, to finally get any real action on addressing the impacts of a heating planet. The big question is why? Why have governments refused to listen to scientists? Why have the likes of the Australian politicians spent decades supporting fossil-fuel industries and the lies of climate change denialists? Why are they still supporting industries that they know will make the climate crisis worse? Partly it is to do with the enormity of the issue, partly it is to do with the inability of our politicians to move beyond their own ideas, experiences and upbringing, and partly it is to do with corruption. Many people feel overwhelmed by the issues and the fact that the impacts
Rural Fire Service firefighters battling out of control fires during the Black Summer fires of 2019-20. Photo Ewan Willis of climate change have often felt so conceptual and futuristic. But recent experiences of flooding, drought and the Black Summer bushfires have begun to bring the issue home to many Australians. Similar events around the world are making it real for more people every day. We still have the likes of Australian PM ScoMo trying to pander to climate advocates at the recent climate summit with empty promises but more people are now saying that is not enough. From the School Strike 4 Climate, to young people getting political and
registered to vote in the US, it has been made clear that action on climate change from the US president Jo Biden was required. The pressure young people have brought to bear on the EU to drive the EU Green Deal shows now is the time to keep up that pressure for action at all levels. That action also needs to include transparent governance, not just from corporations but also from governments. People have to move on from the idea that they are powerless to make change because they are, individually, such a small part of the world.
Everyone needs to demand that governments work for a better the future, that they do it with integrity, that they take real action, that they move fast. Because if we don’t all own our role in creating the future, if we expect someone else to do it, then we have failed, not only ourselves but our children and their future. Throughout the last few years The Echo, with other supporters, has been addressing these issues through both our annual Sustainability Supplement and our Planet Watch columns (www.echo.net.au/ planet-watch). In the Planet Watch column we have updated readers on the latest debates around hydrogen and the disturbing concept of the ‘gas-led recovery’. In the coming pages we explore what the issues are facing us as both a country and a world with no planet B. We look from the macro impacts of what our children and grandchildren will experience as the world warms, to the everyday actions you and others are taking to address climate change in our daily lives.
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Published June 2020
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