EarthChat

This week on Earthchat Marie Gerrard chats to to Una Hobday about a Rotary project that has developed an extensive data bank of native foods suitable for children in danger of malnutrition.In consultation with local gardeners and farmers, the foods have been selected for their nutritional value and local availability. These plants are suitable to be included in community gardens including school and kindergarten aid programs. Check it out on the website “Food Plant Solutions.”

This week Meredith Budge chats with Inaam Barakat, OAM about what it means to be an older migrant, caring within and across communities.Inaam was born in northern Lebanon and moved to Australia as a teenager. Across her life, she has been a committed humanitarian, feminist and advocate for seeing the good in all cultures and in all people. She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in recognition of her community work with refugees, asylum seekers and many others over the years. In accepting the Award, she said, “This country gave us a great opportunity. I was a young woman when I migrated with my family and I'll do anything to protect my country.” In her work, she is resolute in reaching across cultures, difference and prejudice. She was also recognised as an Ambassador for Peace by the Universal Federation for Peace in 2022.On EarthChat, Meredith and Inaam chat about making the most of opportunities to care for others, for social justice and for never giving up in the face of adversity.

This week Marie  Gerrard chats with Ian Dempsy about the most important issues facing us due to environmental damage. They discuss the damage being done but also possible actions to mitigate them. All on this week's EarthChat.

Jaclyn Symes is the State Labor Member for Northern Victoria and the Minister for Environment, Energy and Resources, Climate Action and the SEC. She is also this week's guest on EarthChat, part of our series of talking to sitting local MPs about their vision for the region and how it aligns with BEAM's commitment to a thriving community for a healthy environment.Jaclyn is a born and bred local, and in our conversation, we explore her early influences, her passion for the local region and how she plans to make positive changes for the residents in its many towns. Find out her thoughts about the Goulburn River and we discuss the need to protect biodiversity, restore habitat and make our landscapes more resilient to climate change. Given her energy portfolio, we discuss the clean energy transition and making sure regional communities share in the reduced costs, jobs and investment it creates.

Does everyone have the same access to financial, legal and health benefits in today's society? Who will benefit from the massive role out of data centres? Does capitalism only work when socialism bails it out every ten years or so?
Why is it that "too big to fail" companies are given absolute govt support, and also why does Australia's richest person also benefit from millions in taxpayer-funded support? Is all of this fair?
Jacqui and Mark discuss all this and more on this week's EarthChat. Tune in!

FOE's Cam Walker joins Ruth to outline significant environmental issues for this next Victorian State Election. Cam will take us through the issues and then offer ways we can help to be part of the solution.Aside from the destructive and tragic cost for all species of the ongoing wars in Iran, Ukraine, and Gaza, the increased burning of fossil fuels by military forces is currently generating 5.5% of global greenhouse gases which is inevitably accelerating global warming thereby creating extreme weather events.Wild fires in Europe expose some of the global consequences of these extreme conditions. Here in Victoria, many are still reeling from last Summer’s bush fire losses, and now we are heading into an El Niño Summer with predictions suggesting this coming Summer will be even hotter than the last making significant parts of Australia extremely fire prone.Friends of the Earth and other active environmental organizations and groups campaign for a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy, ‘good’ jobs, and climate justice. This means we stop propping up aging coal and gas plants as well as ceasing our dependence on oil by electrifying our homes and locking in renewables, along with securing energy justice - a just energy system that will serve all communities and ultimately their environments with clean affordable power instead of adding to dirty corporate profit.Cam Walker will discuss how we can prepare for the emerging climate threat to Victoria’s ecosystems and biodiversity so we all can take action and support each other - especially those who need to work outside in the heat, including our precious food producers - as well as our wildlife and domestic animals, inner city and rural habitats.In a time when integrity and transparency need to be stridently and overtly upheld as critical values for driving legitimate organizations, FOE continues to independently and creatively persevere their quest for environmental and social justice for us all. They do this by heightening public awareness through education, creative resistance and actions, as well as advocating for social and legislative change through research, policy submissions, press releases, letters, petitions forums, and much more.Increasingly we are seeing Grass roots energy becoming essential to sustain and support community driven environmental and social enterprises such as Friends Of The Earth, (FOE). Join us to see how you can help.Cam Walker is Friends of the Earth Australia’s campaigns coordinator. Cam has been active on environment and climate justice issues for more than 25 years. He has lectured in environmental politics and change theory at RMIT University and is currently working with Victorian communities to protect farmland from unconventional gas and fracking, as well as new coal developments. You can follow Cam’s Twitter feed at @Cam_Walker.
All donations to Friends of the Earth Melbourne are tax deductible: https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/donate 
 
FOE strictly screens all financial support and refuses funds from unethical corporate sectors like fossil fuels, mining, and armaments. FOE continues to sustain its existence and activism through a mix of community donations, including individual support, membership fees, social enterprise like running community spaces and the Food Co-op in Collingwood, and philanthropic grants. To view FOE’s history of achievements since forming in 1973: https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/history
 
 

This week on EarthChat, Tim Budge talks with Dr Lynne Kelly AM, a science writer and Adjunct Research Fellow at LaTrobe University. After a secondary school career, Lynne returned to university to complete a doctorate, astonished by the way Indigenous cultures manage to memorise and teach a vast amount of practical information, all without writing.Over the past decade, she has focused on the use of story, music, place and art as mnemonic devices for vast amounts of information about the environment. Her books include The Memory Code, Memory Craft, The Knowledge Gene and two books written with Aboriginal co-author, Margo Neale, Songlines: the power and promise and Songlines for Younger Readers. She uses these techniques herself for learning languages, remembering bird species and has twice won the Australian Senior Memory Champion title.On EarthChat, Lynne and Tim will explore the memory methods used by those who depended on their memories for everything they knew: oral cultures including Aboriginal Australian, Native American, Pacific and African societies. We will explore Lynne’s big question, “How the hell do Indigenous elders remember so much stuff?
Read more about Lynne here and here.

This week, new EarthChat host Meredith Budge welcomes Clare Claydon as her first guest. A long-time, Central Victoria resident, Clare has spent her life working in community development across education, refugee and migrant support, adult learning, agriculture, Landcare and environmental projects. Having grown up in Ghana, Uganda and Kenya, and later lived in Papua New Guinea, she brings a rich global perspective to her life history and her personal and professional work.Retirement has only deepened Clare’s community involvement. She collects Indigenous seeds to support native revegetation and hosts a monthly First Nations Learning Group, helping participants learn about First Nations history and caring for Country through Indigenous knowledge and practice. What makes Clare tick? Find out and join Meredith and Clare as they explore Clare’s remarkable journey and her passion for the environment and thriving regional communities.

What if the impact of your efforts to save the planet and plant trees could be seen from space? How exciting would that be?Tony Rinaudo is someone who spent 18 years in West Africa seeking to support farmers to regenerate forests and fight desertification. The program, called Farmer Managed Forest Regeneration, has been responsible for growing 200 million trees and reforesting 6 million hectares - about the size of Tasmania.Tony has received many awards for his work, including as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and the Right Livelihoods Award. He is a special guest on EarthChat this week, talking to Tim Budge about his work across many countries and the importance of trees for the whole planet.Get more information about his wonderful book  from the publishers here. Read more about Tony Rinaudo here, here and here.

This week, EarthChat hosts Mark and Jacqui are talking about the environment impact of data centres. It is generally accepted that they will use significant amounts of energy and water. There will be costs and impacts.AI will require multi-gigawatt power and millions of specialized GPUs. Tech giants are building facilities that stretch over a million square metres. However, what will be the actual costs and benefits to humanity, our environment and social structures with all these developments.