The power of community in fighting climate change

[Music]

i want everybody here today

to put your hand up yep thank you that’d

be great

now put it really really nice high in

the air

great now you can pop it down and now i

want everybody to say hello on the count

of three

one two three

and now i want you all to look around

the room and make eye contact with

somebody who you didn’t come with today

and just smile

perfect so now you’ve just proven to me

that you’ve got everything that you need

to be a part of a community

i believe in the power of community

i believe that in taking three steps

backwards

we can take four steps forwards i

believe that

climate change cannot just be fought by

a bunch of scientists and innovators but

that it can be fought

by you and i i’m lottie dl

and my passion for community started

when i didn’t have any passion at all

i’d moved from bustling borrow a cup of

sugar from your neighbor brisbane

to sydney i got strange looks as i

waved hello at my bus driver the barista

at my local coffee shop that i visited

for 18 months

every day didn’t even know my name i

would walk past my neighbors on the

street without even recognizing them

and the people that i was burping next

to

sharing bodily fluids with at the gym

would

run out the door without even a high

five

i spoke to a couple of people about this

and i was told

this is normal i was told you’re in the

big smoke now

i was told that people just get on with

things here and to

not worry about it so i tried not to

i stopped waving to the bus driver

i scrolled through my phone as i waited

for my coffee

i kept not acknowledging my neighbor

and i also became one of those people

who ran out of the gym without even

a high five all the whilst

i felt the news headlines weighing on my

shoulders

there’ll be more plastic than fish in

the sea by 2050.

the number of wild animals on earth has

halved in the past 40 years

an animal or insect species goes extinct

every 30 minutes

i felt disheartened i felt alone

i felt like i was just one person

so why would i even bother trying if

nobody else was going to

i felt like giving up

but you know what my grandma

didn’t raise a quitter and everything

changed

when i made a new year’s resolution yes

you heard that correct a new year’s

resolution that actually worked

there was no ambitious weight loss goals

there was no

savings targets it wasn’t even a smart

goal what it was was to do better

now what does that mean

i’m not entirely sure but i can tell you

that two and a half years later i am

definitely

doing better to date

i’ve helped 160 000 australians

reduce their waste and i’m proud to say

that they think of me every time they

look at their rubbish bins

my passion for community

started with a worm yep

a wrigley squirmy icky little worm

on my quest to do better i started

looking into composting

and i thought in a city living no garden

no compost bin tough luck but it was

through connecting with people in my

community

that had a compost bin and in some cases

a worm farm

that i was able to find community i was

able to connect with people who like me

were trying to do better

i don’t feel disheartened anymore i feel

inspired

each and every day so i want to share

with you

three examples of communities that are

doing better so first of all

let’s look at the power of people

literally take the sleepy seaside town

of dalesford

in 2011 this community raised

10 million dollars to fund australia’s

first

community-run wind farm these two

turbines named

gale and gusto now create enough energy

to power two thousand homes

in inner-city sydney two camdenville

state school parents

decided to start a community composting

program

they called it food scrap friday and as

the name suggests

every friday as families drop off their

kids they also drop off their food

scraps these scraps are then collected

and composted in one of 20

compost bins that are then used to teach

the kids about

our environment and about composting

what seems like a small

grassroots movement to date has

collected over 20

000 kilos of food scraps that are now

no longer going to landfill and lastly

the hardest most difficult part of

starting a community

movement for 90 year old don wilson

was finding a good name seven days later

adopt a street and keep it neat was born

as the name suggests individuals put

their hand up and

adopt their street they simply walk down

pick it up once a week once a month you

can choose

this group of waste crusaders they don’t

spend countless hours they haven’t

changed their life dramatically

they’re simply getting fitter whilst

picking up litter

these three examples are just grains of

sands

in how communities are making a

difference when it comes to climate

change

for me my community is about

empowering individuals to do better

it’s about giving them credible

information on

things as simple as what to put in your

recycling

bin it’s about connecting them with

individuals who like them want to do

better but

aren’t even sure where to start and it’s

about giving

small australian business owners a

platform that they can sell their wares

from calgary to cairns to launceston

so what am i asking of you today the

newest members of my community

i’m asking for you to believe

believe that you were powerful believe

that you can make a difference believe

that you can fight climate change

wave to your bus driver make that

barista remember

your name and how to spell your name

properly

high five people at the gym say hello to

your neighbors

you could even adopt a street start a

community composting program

just join in the beach clean up

you know your community because you’re

already a part of it

whether you’re participating right now

or you’re about to

communities aren’t about roles or

hierarchies or

internal politics they’re about coming

together

with a common goal we can all

do our part so let the politicians do

their jobs

let the innovators do theirs and let us

do ours whether it’s your school

your suburb your street or your social

media

stand up and do something

i believe that together we can make a

difference

together we have the power to create

change and together we can

fight climate change so i’m going to ask

you all

one more time to put your hand up

and join in on your community i’m gonna

ask you all to say hello on the count of

three

one two three

and introduce yourself to your neighbor

and finally

i’m going to ask you to look around the

room and smile

and create a connection so

how will you be a part of your community

[Applause]