Geoff has written for publications as diverse as PC User and The Northern Star His weekly columns have been a source of humour and inspiration for tens of thousands of readers and his mailbox is always full.
Here you can find his more recent contributions.
Geoff riffs on the frog deaths in the Royal National park, phytoplanktons and the need to Agitate, Educate and Organise.
There is no video for the Cage this week but the Hi fidelity is now available on the Soundcloud platform
Catch the full texti is on LinkedIn and blog at GeoffEbbs.com.
Dave Whitfield from EcoRadio on 4ZZZ interviews Sam from Reverse Garbage Queensland about their upcoming WornOUT Fashion Exhibition. Sam also takes Dave around the warehouse to explore how manufacturing waste materials can be repurposed for FASHION!
Shoulda Been There: There are always more interesting events than hours in the day, but every now and then there is an event that is so interesting, rewarding and inspiring I cannot resist saying, “You should’a been there”.
This time, you should’a been at the University of South Australia, or online like I was, to see Tyson Yunkaporta and Jack Manning Bancroft deliver the keynote speeches discussing Indigenous Systems Thinking at a day-long event hosted by Uni SA Yunus Social Business Centre, Wicked Lab, and Catalyst 2030.
The reason that it gets raised to Should’a Been There status is the fact that it directly tackles the yawning gulf between the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals and the realities of the global economy and offers an approach that might help close the gap.
Dr Yunkaporta nails the intractable dissonance between the normative agenda of, say, eliminating global poverty and the reality that all western liberal democracies fund their well-being through extraction and exploitation of one kind or another. The 11 minute summary of his keynote speech delivers that message in two parts: a yarn demonstrating the complexity of any specific issue followed by an example of how stark the challenge is when you try to address any single issue in that complex array of issues.
Listen to the summary on Geoff’s Soundcloud.
You can follow more of Dr Yunkaporta’s incisive thinking about issues as diverse as artificial intelligence and the nature of truth on his podcast The Other Others or in his book, Sand Talk.
Tyson describes himself as a ‘glass half empty guy’ and hands over to Jack Manning Bancroft as a ‘glass half full kinda guy’. Jack extends the narrative arc from initially identifying a similar gulf between good intentions and actual outcomes of the colonist process of indigenous recognition through specialist events such as NAIDOC, welcomes to country and indigenous studies; making the point that these activities operate as containers or ceilings rather than liberating opportunities or floors. He then describes the leap that he took in smashing the ceiling by taking poor kids from globally exploited populations and giving them opportunities among the global elite.
You can explore Jack’s work at AIME, Fone Free Web, or his books The Eagle Inside and Mentoring: The Key to a Fairer World.
It is also worth exploring the work done by the Wicked Lab and Catalyst 2030 and the other speakers on the day. I found out about the event through Emma-Kate Rose and Rob Pekin of Food Connect who were presenting on the issue of funding social enterprise.
A revolting murder. A war between exploitation for profit and land management. Deep insight into the Australian psyche. A small town divided between environmental values of koala habitat and the riches offered by industrial agribusiness. A determined environment officer is killed in cold-blood by a self righteous land developer. How does a community heal such an ugly rift? How does a film maker deal with the divide?
Hear Geoff interview director Gregory Miller, in the Cage. Kate Holden’s new book A Winter Road has caused us to refresh this story.
An Update for July 2021 – The ABC has interviewed author Kate Holden about the incident in her new book The Winter Road
The Generator’s Geoff Ebbs puts Professor Ross Garnaut in the Cage to discuss his new book RESET. A blueprint for a green, socially just future for Australia.
Professor Garnaut, outlines the technology solutions he highlighted in his previous book Superpower, noting that the government’s current technology roadmap largely follows his lead. He discusses the value of clean hyrdrogen in building a clean manufacturing and export business.
In the second part of the interview Geoff and Ross discuss his economic measures to ensure that future growth is socially just. The Australian Income Security and the tax on wealth rather than income.
In this segment, the third part of the interview, Geoff asks Professor Garnaut about the differences between Green Growth and deGrowth, the reality of decoupling economic growth from environmental impact and whether we are creating a scientific dystopia in which wilderness is a theme park.
Author of Your Life Your Planet, Geoff Ebbs, puts doctor and electric car owner, Erich Schulz, in the Cage for 26 minutes to get a handle on the role of electric cars in building a sustainable future.
This quick snippet shows Erich discussing the role of technological innovation in inspiring people to be sustainable. It is much better than telling them to live more gently on the planet by “pushing their bike up hill and eating mung beans”, he says.
Unkindly referred to as “two old needle-noses with grey, pony-tails arguing about mung beans and bike riding,” the encounter forms the basis of Tip 68 – Alternative Fuels and the experts page, Enter the Electroids.
The full interview is also available online.