Visiting my newest grandson, Murphy, in Queensland coincided, happily, with the annual conference of the Green Institute.
Subsequently, I snapped up the opportunity to spend two days of my trip north enjoying the conference.
Although keen to hear what the Greens Party think-tank was to endorse and encourage, the opportunity to talk with and record some of the talented speakers for my podcast, Climate Conversations, was a moment I could not allow to pass unaddressed.
In the lead-up to the event, the institute’s executive director, Tim Hollo, emailed registrants and interested people praising the Matildas’ efforts.
Quoting a friend, he wrote: “Watching that incredible game of football, wasn’t it lovely to feel so stressed about something that wasn’t actually genuinely life and death!? Thanks to the Matildas for bringing so many of us together!”
Countering that, Hollo wrote: “I’m sure that, like me and so many others, you’ve been watching the news of horrific fires in tropical Hawaii, heatwaves in winter in Argentina, bath-temperature oceans off Florida and record-smashing melting at both poles, with mounting fear about what the coming southern summer holds for us.
“And a quiet but building terror about the years and decades to come.”
Mr Hollo went on: “But, back to life and death ... how are we going to survive in our climate-changed cities? How will we manage the floods and fires, the storms, the sheer heat?”
Among those at the conference was University of NSW Environment and Society Group associate professor Mark Diesendorf.
Professor Diesendorf, brought to Mooroopna several years ago by the Goulburn Valley-based Slap Tomorrow, discussed many issues, focusing on his new book, The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation.
Also among the speakers was Professor Susan Harris Rimmer, who talked about Australia’s ‘Cruel Summer: extreme heat and human rights in Australian cities’.
Professor Rimmer is from Griffith University, director of its Policy Innovation Hub, and leader of the climate justice theme at its Climate Action Beacon.
Also among the speakers was the founder of the Sydney-based ‘Sweltering Cities’, Emma Bacon, who agreed to visit and speak in Shepparton, explaining why the group had been successful in helping people understand how they can live more comfortably in warmer (sweltering) towns and cities.
Ms Bacon also participated in a panel entitled ‘Beating the heat: community action for cool cities’.
In an email to all conference attendees after the event, Mr Hollo said: “The referendum on the Voice was announced yesterday for October 14.
“This is not an easy issue for many in the Greens — and frankly, it shouldn’t be an easy issue. If we’re not grappling hard with what to do, we’re not paying attention.
“I’ve listened to a lot of passionate perspectives from First Nations friends and colleagues in recent months and years. I understand and respect the ‘Sovereign now’ argument and have a lot of sympathy for it — the refusal to be part of a racist constitution, the demand for decolonisation, the push to use the No as the path to transformation.”
He continued: “My strong feeling, as a settler colonial here on this land, is that, whatever the referendum result, it’s what we do AFTER a Yes or No vote that matters most.
“We must not let a No set back justice — if it happens, we must mobilise it for transformation. Equally, we must not let a Yes be seen as the ‘tick, we’ve dealt with that, now stop complaining’ bullshit moment it could easily become.
“In this context, perhaps the most persuasive argument I’ve yet heard is from Widjabul Wiabal/Bundjalung woman GetUp’s Larissa Baldwin, who says: ‘The power of a referendum is not just in the wording of a question or the promises of governments. It’s in the act of millions of people voting, shifting the dial of what’s possible for First Nations justice.’”
Then he said: “This is why I’ll be voting Yes, and then continuing to work with First Nations people for the crucial work of decolonising — truth-telling, Treaty which changes us all for the better, bringing Indigenous wisdom into how we all live together on this land.”
And so, with all this said, how was grandson Murphy?
He was wonderful. Smiling, rolling over and winning hearts, but having sat through the Green Institute conference at Brisbane and followed the climate conversation for nearly 20 years, I am restless about his future, a life in which he will never experience a month with cooler than average temperatures.