HEALING THE EARTH

1st June 2020

Producer: Andy Britt 

Interviews: Vivien Langford

Guests:

Greta Thunberg

Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng

Rev Glenn Loughrey

Bruce Shillingsworth

Vanessa  Petrie

Rhys Anderson

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced"  James Baldwin

Greta Thunberg spoke to the EU parliament.. The speaker said "You meet politicians who take a photo with you and then do nothing." But make no mistake, "you are not at the white house with Donald Trump, you are not in Australia where the prime minister is  " climatosceptique" You are in Europe! We are making the Green deal ."

But Greta tells  this huge assembly  how we are deluding ourselves that we are taking climate action. How we are all pretending,pretending,pretending.

"We notice the house is on fire yet we go inside, go to bed and do not even call the fire brigade. Our targets for 2050 are wrong. We should have targets for 2020 and each year after that until the carbon emissions are right down."

It's a humbling moment and humiliating for us to hear that everybody knows what an obstacle Australia is.

There was a standing ovation.

For healing we then talk to Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng. She is a clinical psychologist and Songwoman.

She has insights into endurance because Aboriginal people have already been through a holocaust. She wants transformational leaders brave enough to take bold climate action. She says " If you move beyond  being ego centric, you can reach a higher level of thinking. I discovered a number of things that were unique to Aboriginal culture so that a person can navigate to that higher level."

Bruce Shillingsworth spoke at the Transitions Film Festival about saving the water in the Darling Barker river. Carbon emissions are behind the drought but unfair draining of the water brings preventable suffering to wildlife and communities. He makes an impassioned appeal for us to defend the river, to supply water tanks and filters to communities that feel abandoned. He invites us to the second great Corroboree tour in September October to go to Bourke and Menindee and listen to the people. The film is " When the river runs dry" by Rory Mc Leod

Rev Glenn Loughrey spoke on a panel  about " Sustainable Nation". As a Wiradgeri man, minister and artist he talks about reading the land. It's had enough as the drought, fires and fish kills attest. We can notice these signs but how can we demand less and start the healing?. Vanessa Petrie CEO from BZE and Rhys Anderson water business leader  from Arup talk about working in communities  to  build water and energy solutions that will endure and not cause future damage.