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]