Living the Change: Inspiring Stories for a Sustainable Future (Free Full Documentary)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Jordan and Antoinette here. [00:00:02] Speaker 2: It's Happen Films' 7th birthday, so to celebrate we're releasing our pay-to-view feature film, Living the Change, for free. [00:00:08] Speaker 1: We hope you're inspired by the stories featured in the film. If you'd like to support us in making more films, you can purchase a copy of Living the Change, without this intro message or any ads, from our website, happenfilms.com. [00:00:20] Speaker 2: If you'd like to share the film with your community, you can also purchase a screening licence. [00:00:24] Speaker 1: We also have a heap of other films available on our website, all about permaculture, sustainability and living more simply, so be sure to check those out as well. [00:00:33] Speaker 2: Hope you enjoy the film. [00:00:57] Speaker 3: The current system has to go through a collapse, unless you believe that infinite growth is possible on a finite planet. The system is growth dependent, so there's going to be a collapse in one form or another. [00:01:14] Speaker 4: If you just look at what's happening in terms of deforestation, resource over-consumption, waste streams and climate change, I mean, these are all phenomena that are brought about by our over-consumption, over-exploitation of resources. [00:01:38] Speaker 5: We have to leave 80% at least of the fossil fuel that we know about and that we know we could make money digging up. We have to leave it in the ground for the entire century at least. [00:01:52] Speaker 3: The ecological crisis comes from treating the earth as an other, as just a bunch of stuff. [00:02:01] Speaker 6: We've been so powerful and we've impacted on so much of the wild world around us that if we don't do something fairly soon, the wild world is going to consume us. [00:02:16] Speaker 7: You know, these are the massive issues. Climate change, you know, energy and food, all of these things that are converging on us. And yet, you know, you pick up the paper every day and there'll be nothing about this stuff. [00:02:30] Speaker 4: If you look at our global economic system, I guess you'd have to first think of it as a system by accident. Nobody sat down and designed this thing. And in a lot of ways, it's sort of the worst of all possible combinations. Because what you have is something that is supposed to be based in the real world, but behaves as if it were in a fantasy world. [00:02:53] Speaker 8: It's really exploitive, extractive, damaging, not only to people, but to the environment and to the economy too. I think we're heading for some very deep water if we don't make these changes. [00:03:18] Speaker 9: Being sustainable is not just a nice thing to do. Being unsustainable isn't just a bit unfortunate. It is an existential threat to our species. People don't seem to get that. We actually need to do something about it or we're gone. [00:03:35] Speaker 3: You've probably had those moments of despair where you think it's just hopeless and the world is always going to be this way and anything we do is not enough. But there's also, and I would say that this is maybe more of a heart-knowing that understands that a more beautiful world is possible. It's just a moment of despair. [00:03:52] Speaker ?: It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. 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It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. [00:06:22] Speaker 4: It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. It's just a moment of despair. And pretty much everything else on the planet. Is that it's causing a lot of unsustainable growth. It's causing growth to accelerate. In a way that cannot be met. By the natural resources or sinks. On the planet we inhabit. [00:07:03] Speaker 3: The money system demands endless growth. It compels endless growth. It encourages endless growth. So in other words. It encourages the conversion of nature. Into property. Into products. [00:07:19] Speaker 4: Now the problem with this growth of course. Is that if the economy keeps growing. Sooner or later. It needs natural resources. To support that growth. [00:07:40] Speaker 8: One of the big flaws. In the current money system. Is interest. We would probably only need. To work. Half of the hours. That we do. And still be able to maintain. The same standard of living. If it wasn't for interest. Interest. Is hidden. In so many ways. The price. The price of any goods and services. The price of any goods and services. Most businesses. Have. Loans. On which they're paying interest. And they don't pay the interest. You do. I do. And so that means that we have to work. And work. And work. And exploit mother nature. As well. In the process. Way more. Than would be necessary. If it wasn't for interest. [00:08:28] Speaker ?: For a lot of the things. [00:08:28] Speaker 8: To keep running. To keep the finance. Engine ticking along. And keep economies moving. [00:08:32] Speaker ?: We have to have lots. And lots of energy. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. We have to have lots. And lots of energy. Energy for extracting. [00:08:39] Speaker 4: Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. [00:08:50] Speaker ?: Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for extracting. Natural resources. [00:08:59] Speaker 4: Energy for extracting. Natural resources. Energy for shipping things. Around the world. Energy for manufacturing. Energy to promote them. Energy to keep them going. Energy to maintain things. So it's a lot of. A lot of energy. Used in the system. Fossil fuel energy. Is energy from the sun. [00:09:14] Speaker ?: That's been stored in plants. Or other living things. And has been stored. Under the ground usually. For millions and millions of years. [00:09:19] Speaker 9: When you dig it up. You get a. Free bonus. Basically. You get this. Amazing wealth of energy. Which you can do all kinds of. Creative and amazing things with. But the problem is. Is that. When it runs out. That's it. It's gone. The other aspect. Of that of course. Is the process of getting it. And digging it up. Is both destructive. And also expensive. And requires energy to do. [00:10:03] Speaker ?: To do. To do. To do. To do. To do. To do. To do. To do. To do. To do. [00:10:13] Speaker 5: Peak oil. Is a concept. That. Is quite simple. What it means. Is that you. Have a finite amount. Of something. And if you consume it. At a steady rate. Then. There kind of isn't a peak. You just consume it. But if you consume it. With a. Increasing rate. Then. You'll hit a point. Where you can't. Increase anymore. And that. That would be a peak. And then the consumption. Would necessarily. [00:10:41] Speaker ?: Drop off. In some way. [00:10:43] Speaker 7: The energy return. On investment. From fossil fuels. When we first discovered. It was so big. And that's. That's why we have. The abundance. That we have now. Is just. That free energy. And we've been having. This crazy party. You know. For a hundred years now. On fossil fuels. It's just a crazy binge. That we've been on. And we're at the end. Of the binge now. Because the. The energy return. On investment. Is dwindling. All the time. It's how our. Our food system works. We talk about. This green revolution. That fed all these people. But it. It's not a green revolution. It's an oil revolution. The entire system. [00:11:20] Speaker ?: Is hugely dependent. On fossil fuel inputs. You pull those out. [00:11:23] Speaker 9: And I guarantee you. Within days. The whole thing. Is going to fall down. If you take into account. Fossil fuels. And the transport. The tilling. The you know. Everything. The packaging. [00:11:34] Speaker ?: The movement. The whole. You know. Food system. [00:11:38] Speaker 7: That we have. In the developed world. So called. Developed world. Then. You know. There's at least. Ten units of energy. For every one. We get out of it. Basing a food production. System. That's meant to feed the world. On something. Which is temporary. Brings obvious problems. As a result of that. Is the huge loss of biodiversity. [00:11:58] Speaker 9: And. While not a lot of people. Care about. Bugs. And all this other stuff. Biodiversity is critical. So when you strip that away. By having what. [00:12:07] Speaker ?: We call monocultures. [00:12:08] Speaker 9: Then you get. [00:12:09] Speaker ?: The food production system. [00:12:09] Speaker 9: The food production system. That's meant to feed the world. The food production system. That's meant to feed the world. On something which is temporary. Brings obvious problems. As a result of that. Is the huge loss of biodiversity. And. While not a lot of people care about. [00:12:20] Speaker ?: Bugs. And all this other stuff. [00:12:22] Speaker 9: Biodiversity is critical. So when you strip that away. By having what. We call monocultures. Then you get. You know. You get massive problems. With monocultures. We are talking about. Growing one crop. Or farming one animal. Or. And you know. You don't see that. In nature. Nature doesn't work that way. It's evolved. Diversity. For resilience. When you take that away. These systems become really brittle. And they're very prone. To breaking. Now we kind of. Stave off the worst of those effects. But we try to. With fossil fuel inputs. We put in fertilizers. We put in. Herbicides. Fungicides. Pesticides. We go to great lengths. To try and protect. These very fragile. Food production systems. I think what a lot of people. Don't realize. Is that. Our food system. Is incredibly. Vulnerable. We do a pretty good job. Most of the time. Of. Getting food. Where it needs to go. Managing. Supplies. Managing. Surplus. Transportation. All that sort of stuff. But. It is quite vulnerable. To. Major upsets. All kinds of crises. Particularly economic crises. If the shops. [00:13:42] Speaker ?: The supermarkets. Stopped selling food. For three days. [00:13:45] Speaker 9: For some reason. How. Would you survive? What would that be like? How would that feel? What would you do? You know. It's happened to me. In a major city. Just one day. And it really made me think. You begin to realize. That there is a series of things. Which all need to be in place. And all need to be functioning properly. All the time. For things to run smoothly. In a world of increasing. Climate volatility. And the economic. Pressures. That that can bring. It's really easy to see. How a bad situation could develop. So. In a world of increasing. Climate volatility. And the economic. Pressures. [00:14:16] Speaker ?: That that can bring. It's really easy to see. [00:14:18] Speaker 9: How a bad situation could develop. So. In a world of increasing. Climate volatility. And the economic. Pressures. That that can bring. It's really easy to see. How a bad situation could develop. [00:14:31] Speaker 7: So this is the kind of. Scary reality. And it. And it's coming fast. So unless we really. Really. Quickly. Change our food system. And how we do it. You know. Then. Then. You know. There's going to be huge. Impacts on. On humans. [00:14:49] Speaker ?: Let alone. The other animals. On the planet. [00:14:52] Speaker 5: To a certain extent. People who. Who really do. Understand. The problem of climate change. And resources. And equity. It's really easy. To get focused. On the miracle technology. Solution to that. Because that's. What we do. That's what society's. Asking us to do. [00:15:13] Speaker 3: I think if technology. Could have solved. All of our problems. Then it would have already. Solved all of our problems. Theoretically. We have all the technology. We need. To live. Beautifully on earth. And beautifully. With each other. So something else. Has to happen. We have. Lived. Beautifully on earth. And beautifully. With each other. So something else. [00:15:34] Speaker ?: Has to happen. A hundred years. From now. Every solar panel. We build. Will be rubbish. It'll be toxic waste. In fact. Somewhere. I hope somebody. Figures out. What to do with it. Every windmill. We build. Now. Won't. Be running anymore. It'll. It'll. It'll. It'll. It'll. It'll. It'll. [00:15:56] Speaker 5: It'll be. Hopefully. A lot of it'll be. Recycled. I don't know. But the carbon. We put in the air. We'll still be there. You're never going to have. Air travel. Air travel. Air travel. A hundred years. From now. Every solar panel. We build. Will be rubbish. It'll be toxic waste. In fact. Somewhere. [00:16:17] Speaker ?: I hope somebody. Figures out what to do with it. [00:16:19] Speaker 5: Every windmill. You're never going to have. Air travel. With renewables. You're never going to have. Steel. With renewables. You're never going to have. Electronics. With renewables. Because you need. Diesel. So. Making sure. That you leave. Some diesel. For. Later. It's kind of important. I'm not. Disillusioned. With solar. Or wind. Or anything. I know. That the. Substitution. Of those things. For fossil fuels. Isn't. Possible. So as long as. We keep telling ourselves. The story. That it is. We aren't actually. Doing the thing. We have to do. Which is to just. Leave the stuff. In the ground. Which means. [00:17:04] Speaker ?: What? There's only one thing. Is. [00:17:07] Speaker 5: If there's an industrial. Civilization out there. A couple centuries. From now. Then. They're. Using fossil fuel. Tiny amounts of it. And they're using. Renewable energy. And that. Renewable energy. They are using. Is hydro. And geothermal. And. [00:17:26] Speaker ?: Wood. [00:17:27] Speaker 5: Wood. Wood. That they are harvesting. And husbanding. Very, very carefully. All right. And what we notice. Most about them. Is. How little they're using. Of. Most everything. That's what has to happen. [00:17:40] Speaker ?: It doesn't matter. How many solar panels. [00:17:42] Speaker 5: You ever put on anything. The only thing that matters. Is leaving. The coal in the ground. Leaving the oil in the ground. Leaving the gas in the ground. All of it. And planting back. Every bit of forest. That you possibly can. That's the only thing that matters. The history of civilization. Has been kind of. Like a history of. Increasing power. To dominate and control the other. And. The history of civilization. [00:18:00] Speaker ?: Has been kind of. Like a history of. An. Increasing power. To dominate and control the other. And. The history of civilization. Has been kind of. Like a history of. An. Increasing power. To dominate and control the other. And. [00:18:13] Speaker 3: The history of civilization. Has been kind of. Like a history of. An. Increasing power. To dominate and control the other. And. The history of civilization. Has been kind of. And. [00:18:23] Speaker ?: And. [00:18:23] Speaker 3: Control the other. [00:18:24] Speaker ?: The. [00:18:24] Speaker 3: Cultural other. [00:18:25] Speaker ?: And. [00:18:25] Speaker 3: Also. The natural other. And this was supposed to bring us into utopia. We were supposed to live in paradise by now. A paradise of electrified comfort, robot servants, space colonies, artificial food, infinite lifespans, etc., etc. The breakdown that's happening today in part is happening because this glorious promise of technology and also social engineering was never fulfilled. And in fact, things are getting worse and worse. And in fact, our technologies of control now look to be seeding our destruction. The breakdown of the ecological basis of civilization. We don't know anymore what the answer is. We don't know who we are. We don't even know what's real. Because on every level, the story that answered those questions is breaking down. Politically, economically, and especially technologically and in our relationship to nature. So that leaves us not knowing. And it leaves us open to another story. We don't know who we are. [00:20:24] Speaker ?: We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. [00:20:33] Speaker 10: We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. [00:20:36] Speaker ?: We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. 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We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We don't know who we are. We are in a position to do it properly because of the CSA. Our members allow us to create that diversity. That other old system doesn't allow you to create that diversity. [00:22:10] Speaker 12: CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It means that a farmer starts growing food. And growing food. There's a lot of unknowns in there. And you have to start at the beginning of the season. And you don't know for whatever reason if you're going to harvest all the things that you've planned to harvest. That you've started sowing months back. So the idea is that a group of people support the farmer. So the farmer knows he's got an outlet. And the members that we have, they know that every week they're going to get a box of healthy fresh foods that have been harvested just before they got them. For us it means we have stability in the fact that the plants we sow, that they are sold. We don't have the issue of food waste. Because if a broccoli is small and it normally wouldn't be able to go to the supermarket, we can give people two. [00:23:25] Speaker 11: As a farmer, you want to create healthy soils and healthy plants and healthy animals and further up the food chain, you make sure that you create a soil that invites the right sets of microbes. That for us means we have soil, which is the mineral component. In the soil we've got the microorganisms which are governing the system. We just create a habitat for them. Then you've got the plants growing out of there, be it annuals, perennials and trees. Then amongst that you've got the insects living in there and then we've incorporated pigs, sheep, cows, ducks, geese. And I'm sure we're forgetting a few bits and bobs. And every single item adds value. [00:24:33] Speaker 7: So on the closed loop systems, they will have tree crops and all that nuts, fruit, all that kind of thing happening on the fringes or in shelter belts. A whole really diverse approach to farming that is way more sustainable, but also it closes that nitrogen or that fertiliser loop so you don't have to bring it in from the outside. You just don't waste it. [00:25:00] Speaker 9: While eating less meat is a really important thing to do, it's important to recognise that you can't have a healthy ecosystem without animals. A truly environmentally friendly and ecologically healthy food production system must have animals. Because as soon as you take animals out of that system, all the jobs that those animals did in that functioning ecosystem now needs to be done some other way. Whether that's by people or chemicals. The health of these food production systems is supported by the natural and healthy interaction between plants and animals. And that can take the form of pest control, fertility cycles, there's lots of interactions between animals and plants which we can and should use to support a healthy and resilient food production system. So really what that boils down to is we need to eat less meat. We don't cut it out, but the best thing that anyone can do is try and find producers that are operating systems which are looking after the health of their environment, including the animals and supporting them. [00:26:27] Speaker 10: What comes out the back end of a worm is really good stuff. [00:26:52] Speaker 13: What comes out the back end of a worm is really good stuff. And then it's just really cool just seeing this hyphae of fungus and that just growing on the surface of the soil. [00:27:13] Speaker 14: So holistic grazing is a management technique that's been devised by a Zimbabwean man, Alan Savory, and he was observing the large herds of buffalo in Africa and it could be bison in America and just massive herds of ruminant animals. And these animals were constantly on the move because there's generally some lions or something just on their back and wanting to pick off any of the weak ones. We have large mobs of cattle that are shifted every day, but instead of lions, you know, keeping them bunched together, we have electric fences. And each day they're going onto fresh grass and it's long grass and so they're not eating it all. Some of it's getting trampled and with the dung and urine and that, it's just all forming that kind of compost heap on the ground. Other farmers might be looking at us and saying, well, you're just wasting all that grass because it gets dry and stalky and what have you. But, you know, my reply is that waste is a human concept. Nature doesn't do waste. And so we are using that pasture as part of our fertilizer program because that's what's getting put down on the soil and broken down and going back into building soil. When the grass is grazed into the holistic long grazing system, it gets cut off short by the animal and it also sheds its roots at that time. And that's what is releasing carbon into the soil. And I guess one of the most exciting things and drivers of what we're doing is the potential that that has for helping with climate change issues. Some of those CAFOs that they call in America or the feedlot cattle fattening operations are a climate disaster. But again, you know, under this system, they are sequestering more carbon and are part of a natural cycle that that is actually beneficial. Conventionally, farmers, it's all about keeping the grass short in a vegetative state. So it's growing vigorously and that system works while you're putting on, you know, lots of imported fertilizers, particularly phosphate fertilizers largely from North Africa. And a whole system that requires digging up that fertilizer and trucking it and then shipping it and then trucking it and then processing it and then flying it onto hills. It's a system that's not going to work in our future with less fossil fuels. What we're doing on the farm here is trying to reduce the amount of fossil fuels that it takes to produce food. We've got the cattle going around. We have, you know, hens following along behind the cattle. There's pigs on this farm too. And we're milking a few dairy cows and all that is really about using a perennial crop like grass pasture with, you know, forage from trees and that around as well. So we can, you know, produce eggs from the chooks and pork, you know, without relying on so much of the annual grains and all the energy that's involved in producing them. So just trying to get, you know, the fossil fuels out of our food system as much as we can and producing healthy natural food. [00:30:51] Speaker 9: The powerful thing is that with regenerative agriculture, we can not only produce food and we can not only produce an abundance of food, but we can do it in a way that regenerates the land, that replenishes the aquifers, that sequesters carbon, that nurtures and supports biodiversity. Regenerative agriculture, permaculture, holistic management, there's nothing magical about the way that these things work. It's all based upon sound science and about having a point of view that is looking at your ecosystem in its entirety, not just individual aspects of it. So really what this breaks down to is that anyone who's looking after land, whether you're a farmer or a gardener or whatever, you're an ecosystem manager. My philosophy about what to do in the world isn't go to a pristine area and live there and enjoy your life. [00:31:57] Speaker 6: It's to find a place that's degraded and fix it up. [00:32:18] Speaker 15: 23 years ago we started developing the food forest system here. We've got 480 different species of plants at last count. That doesn't include the 80 different types of apples and the 60 different types of gooseberries. And so it's lovely to have that diversity. And it means that every time of the year there's things flowering, things giving fruit, you know, root crops you can eat. And so having diversity is special and that's what makes a forest garden resilient. This property had been abandoned for probably 40 years. No one lived here and the old house had burnt down on the spot. [00:33:02] Speaker 6: And the top area, this area where the house is now, was completely covered in junk and the remains of the old house. Most people would have not even crossed the threshold of the property to have a look at that, I don't think, because it didn't look very appealing. But to us it did, because I thought, well, for one thing, nobody wants it, so it's probably going to be cheap. And it was cheap to buy. And secondly, I thought, I can fix this. [00:33:32] Speaker 15: A food forest is a permanent planting, so you want to set up just like a forest system. So a forest system can be there always. The big trees and the middle sized trees and the bottom layer and the ground layer, they work together. Some plants take up some minerals and give others back and the other one does something else. [00:33:54] Speaker 6: Growing out in the forest garden there, aside from the native trees, which I've used as a framework or a platform for building everything else. And those provide me with shelter from the wind and also nest sites for the birds. And birds are a really important player in the management of the garden, in the tikoka, the cabbage trees that I've got growing there. Starlings nest in almost all of them. And those starlings, as they're feeding their yunkers, their babies, are flying out and finding any soft bodied caterpillar or grub they can. So there's our pest management for that kind of thing. And then as an understory, or the second layer down to that, we have our fruit tree layer, which is our heritage apples and pears and plums and nectarines and peaches, apricots. And then below that, a layer of berry fruits and currants, red currants, black currants, white currants, gooseberries, worcester berries, all of those sorts of shrubby plants that like to grow in the semi-shade. And then wrapping around all of that are the biennial and perennial herbs, some of which are edible, some of which are medicinal. And then below that, there are bulbs and root crops that grow, such as parsnips and wild carrots, those kinds of things. And then winding their way up through these things are vines, like grape vines and kiwifruit and minturine, gooseberries and hops and all sorts of things, which kind of bind everything together and tie the forest together. [00:35:39] Speaker 15: It's so peaceful when you walk about and it's just all the different flowers and the energy and action and all the insects and the birds have their own life. And so the birds are doing all their thing up in the trees and coming down to feeding and insects are flying around and having babies and flying off emissions. It's like being in another universe, really. It's just amazing. And it's, to me, it's how life should be with that livingness and the interconnectedness of all the plants and the bees and the herbs. [00:36:08] Speaker 6: In a forest garden like ours, the major player is wildness, is, you know, the natural world and all of those things that happen in there. And my job is just to kind of mould that to suit our purposes to a certain extent. We are not separate from the wild world. We are as wild as it is. But we've, we've worked towards a form that is not fitting in with the wild world at all well. And it's going to, um, it's going to realign us fairly soon, in my view, unless we can recognise that we need to be fully integrated into, into that world. [00:36:52] Speaker 3: People in indigenous societies, in tribal societies, or in agrarian villages, they were enmeshed in a matrix of relationship that gave them a strong identity. Everybody who they saw on a daily basis knew them really well. And we also were in intimate connection with the land. We knew every plant, we knew every animal, every bird, we knew its song, and when it sang, and what bugs it ate, and where those bugs lived, and what the soil smells like where the bugs live. And what plants grow there and what medicine the plants are used for. We were in this web of interbeing. We felt as if we were at home in the universe. That is missing in our current society. We're surrounded by a sea of strangers, people that we know only very superficially, if at all. [00:37:58] Speaker 16: For Māori people, the ancestors and the land are all part of one. We come from the land. And most people, humans on the planet, relate to land, one way or another, because they belong to it. And they forge their own identity out of it as well. And that will always continue to happen. It's like a biological bond between a mother and a child. You can't break it. That bond is enforced when the genealogy of the ancestors, of their families, grandparents, is emotionally installed in that person, that they feel that they belong here. [00:38:48] Speaker 3: Interbeing is a very natural term. It means more than interconnection or interdependency, which kind of suggests separate selves having relationships. Interbeing is more of an understanding that we are relationship, that my very existence depends or draws from or includes your existence. My well-being is intimately connected to your well-being or to the well-being of the river, the ocean, the forest, people across the world, and so forth, because I'm not really separate from you. And that means that in the story of interbeing, I know that whatever I do to the world will come back to me somehow. So if our true being is the totality of our relationships and includes everything in the cosmos, if we are truly maybe a holographic mirror of all that is, then when we cut ourselves off from any aspect of nature, other people, we create a wound, we create a cutoff. And this is painful. And we yearn to recover our wholeness. However, due to ideology, due to the economic system that we're immersed in, due to cultural factors, due to many, many, many reasons, the reunion that we long for is unavailable to us. That is good for business, because it drives consumerism, it drives acquisitiveness, it drives greed, it drives all kinds of neurotic behaviors that seek to compensate for the missing relationships. [00:40:47] Speaker 17: I felt myself being drawn into this materialistic world because all the people that were around me had material possessions and it was all, there's this wanting and creating of attachment and wanting and wanting more stuff. So I sort of got swept into that in a way. So yeah, I studied business and I was involved in finance and more specifically the stock market. So we used to help people manage their money and one of the organizations I worked with, we used to manage hundreds of millions of dollars for people. I wasn't from that background, from a sort of a conservative sort of upbringing, then all of a sudden I'm involved with, you know, guys that are driving luxury cars and living in an expensive house in Sydney suburbs. It's sort of a bit overwhelming. A lot of the guys that I'd worked with, you know, they were multi-millionaires. But, you know, 20 million wasn't enough. So they have to have the, you know, three cars, they have to have, you know, a holiday home, they have to have a boat. And what happens is you can get trapped in that lifestyle, hey? So the idea is to, you know, have native plants mixed among fruit trees. So we've got, you know, natives here, we've got, we've got a tamarillo here. We've got manuka and carnuka in and pitosporums, natives. We've got a cabbage tree here. This is a pine nut. So those are really expensive nuts you get in the supermarket. This is one of those that takes about 10 years to get any fruit on it or any nuts. So that's a long-term project. And then we've got, over here, we've got a fig tree, which is fruiting quite nicely. And then for the monarch butterflies, we've got a couple of swan plants, which they really enjoy and we might be lucky to see one. Here he comes now. It was only after Beth and my wife and I moved, made the move to New Zealand, we'd just had enough of the whole corporate life. And we wanted a slower, simpler lifestyle. So it was then the realisation sort of hit home. I started to research more, read, you know, hundreds of articles and watched hundreds of documentaries and all sorts of stuff. Then I started to really understand, wow, we've got some serious issues here and no one's really talking about this stuff and it's quite scary. I guess with realisation of some of the broader issues such as, you know, climate change, peak oil or resource depletion and the extinction crisis we're currently going through. And it's sort of like it's these massive issues are being given lip service by governments and organisations. And it's like, oh, it'll just won't happen or it'll just, the system will solve this problem. And that's what it sort of feels like. So I guess that brings up a lot of emotions like, you know, frustration and anger and guilt. And it's like, why isn't someone doing something about this? Oh, here we go, here's strawberry, here's strawberry. So here's a nice one, I can, look at the colour of that thing. Then I started to research permaculture and realised that it was an integrated approach to how we're living. So at the moment, our current society, it's a fragmented approach to living. So everything's compartmentalised or separated, whereas permaculture is a holistic approach to how we're living. It integrates food, environment, with your lifestyle and taking care of, you know, people, the planet and the natural resources. So a lot of people come over to our property and have a look around. They go, what about all your fruit trees? Do you get pests and stuff like birds that eat them? Yeah, sure. But we don't mind that, you know, they were here first and, you know, we're a part of nature. And, you know, we've had comments from other people that live around near us, on the farms, and they say they can't believe how much wildlife and bird life is here. And their property's just, you know, a few hundred metres away, have almost no wildlife or bird life. So, you know, we're attracting bird life and wildlife through just letting nature be as opposed to wanting to control it. Permaculture links into other aspects like collaboration, localisation, food, resiliency and networking. So it's not just about growing food, it's about connecting a whole system and integrating a whole system into one's life. This lifestyle, working on the land and doing permaculture, it feels more rewarding and like I'm putting something back. We also live a less consumerist lifestyle so we don't need as much stuff. So I haven't got this constant craving for more and more things to make me feel satisfied or happy. So there you have it. We have homegrown salad, fruit salad, green salad and some eggs. And I can't believe still that I don't have to go to a supermarket. We've grown all this ourselves in just three years. I'm still amazed. So anyone can do it. When I was living in big cities, it was like I had to get away to connect with nature. But when I wake up every morning, I come outside and I'm immediately in nature here, I don't have that void anymore. I've just got this instant connection and satisfaction. It's hard to explain. [00:47:35] Speaker 3: I mean, maybe you've had this experience feeling like I'm not living my life. I'm living the life I'm paid to live. But what about my life? So this is a different dimension of human nature that we need to invoke. We need to implement. We need to create conditions for that part of human nature to blossom. [00:48:00] Speaker 18: We have been living in Katikati. And I was working a regular job as a GP in the practice there. And then I just found these kind of warning signs that I was trying to get out of balance. You know, I'd be lovely with my patients, but I'd come home and be kind of shitty. I was feeling quite depressed. Just kind of the internal cogs weren't running together very well. And we started talking about it and thought maybe we really need to kind of radically rethink how we want to live. So the house is 20 square meters. It started with sheep shearers quarters just to the side of us here. And that was maybe 20 years ago that that was built. So our bedroom is the original cabin. And then this L-shaped space is our kitchen, lounge, library, office, day bed. Everything. Everything. Yeah. 20 square meters. We've got a shower just adjoining and a bit of a deck out the back. A few months ago, a friend of mine helped me put a 300 watt panel up on the roof. And so that powers the broadband and telephone and a bit more light. [00:49:40] Speaker 19: And then what else? Now we can use a sewing machine. Yeah, we can use a sewing machine. It's good. [00:49:45] Speaker 18: A lot of people, when they hear about it, they think, oh my gosh, how is that with a baby? Or even before that, how is that just the two of you? [00:49:56] Speaker 20: I think actually it's great with a baby living in a small space in that wherever she is, she's never that far away. So it's quite easy to be doing whatever I need to be doing and keeping an eye on her. And when she's sleeping, she'll be close by. [00:50:19] Speaker 18: We have a, I don't know the term for it, like a work trade arrangement with the owners. And we've been living here just over a year. So about three or four days a week, I'm on the farm. And then part time I work as a GP. So our costs are fractional to what they were living in town. I don't have any stress about money, which is a huge benefit. Emotionally, I'm healthier. [00:51:01] Speaker 20: It was, it was a choice wanting to be more immersed in my environment and more directly connected with my needs when my food was coming from. And I love going out and seeing the garden each day and seeing how things have changed. And yeah, it's like having a relationship with a living thing, or lots of living things. [00:51:23] Speaker 18: Regularly attending in the garden, I had this feeling of almost being in love with the garden, which blew me away. [00:51:34] Speaker 3: The future of humanity is to return to that relationship to nature. And to all beings and all human beings too. To fall in love with the world. Its well-being is my well-being. If we really were in love with the planet and incorporated that love into all of our systems, into our money system, we would not have an ecological crisis. [00:52:06] Speaker 9: If an economy is operating outside of ecological limits, then the inevitable conclusion is that it's going to completely erode the resource base until it implodes or collapses. The choice that we have is to design and develop an economy that operates within ecological limits. That's our only safe bet. It's our only bet at all. [00:52:36] Speaker 4: So if we think about the whole problem of deflation and what could happen post-collapse in a country that experiences a sudden reversal and this loss of liquidity where the money supply really, really gets chopped down. People still have needs. People still have goods and services. They're going to find a way to exchange those. The choice you want is the easiest possible way to make this happen. And this is where alternative currencies would plug the gap. If a central government were quick thinking, quick off the mark, and actually had a plan for dealing with this stuff, they could introduce a new currency, maybe a parallel currency, maybe a replacement currency, to counteract the disappearance of all the bank money. And that probably won't happen, though. So it's going to be up to local and regional currencies to fill that void. [00:53:38] Speaker 21: I woke up one morning and jumped out of bed without even being conscious yet, saying, I'm going to start a local currency. And I just felt so much joy. There was just like this energy moving through me. [00:53:51] Speaker ?: I was going to say, I'm going to start a little bit. [00:53:53] Speaker 21: I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. I'm going to start a little bit. One of the primary benefits of the currency, in my mind, is the awareness raising that goes along with it. We're after not the currency itself, but the relationships that come out of the currency. So one of the major things is this awareness campaign around the benefits of buying local. The benefits of having a commitment between customers and businesses, of knowing what's available in your own community, of going to town instead of the city when you need something, of supporting your neighbours and looking to your neighbours and their businesses as a primary way of meeting your needs. [00:55:13] Speaker 8: The wealth generated by using our local currency, 100% of it stays here. There's no interest and it just keeps circulating and recirculating in the local community. And rather than being considered in competition with the national money, it's actually complementary to it. [00:55:35] Speaker 4: So you strengthen these local connections. Of course, that's a very resilient thing to do because it just means that if things are rough, you've got friends, neighbours and people in your region that are able to help one another out. Time banking is a very interesting development in that it uses a very egalitarian basis. It says everybody's time is equal. That it doesn't matter how skilled you are or what your qualifications are or what you do for your day job, that your hour is worth the same as my hour. I'm Maria Lee from Te Mahi Kai at Diamond Harbour School, [00:56:28] Speaker 22: which is a gardening to cooking programme. So we teach the children how to grow everything themselves. And they put the seeds in, then look after the garden. And then when it's my turn, we harvest what they've grown and turn it into lunch. So today we're making kale chips and broad bean dip and each week it's different. The idea is just to teach them some basics of cooking. And in order for that to work, we use Time Bank volunteers. And we couldn't do it without them. Our volunteers are paid one credit per hour that they come and volunteer for us. So we take those from the school Time Bank credit system and give it to them. And then they use that to trade for whatever they need. [00:57:40] Speaker 4: It's always easier to build your barn while the sun is shining than try to put it up in a howling gale. So if you put these things together now, if you get a system up and running, and especially with something like a local currency where there may be some marketing involved, you know, trying to get buy-in from people and all that, you don't create one of these things out of whole cloth and get it widely accepted overnight. [00:58:09] Speaker 9: Look, there's no getting away from it. A huge part of this is that we just consume too much stuff. Our entire economy is built on getting us to buy and consume, dispose and re-consume things. I don't think it's realistic that we can expect to live in a world where we don't make things or use things or use resources. Of course we do. But we need to use them in a way that is smart. You know, it's about intelligent use. It's about being efficient and not wasteful. [00:58:41] Speaker 23: The notion of waste is something that wasn't around two or three hundred years ago. You know, we just didn't have waste. Things had utility. Things had value all the way through. And if they reached the end of productivity, they were, you know, reformed into something else. Welcome to Bayswater Repair Cafe. A Repair Cafe is a free pop-up event where local community experts in a variety of different areas offer their skills and services to other people in their local community for free. You know, every year we send a crazy amount of stuff to holes in the ground and this is about maybe doing something to address some of that flow. But also in the process of doing that, bringing people together in a beautiful way that connects people, creates some networks and maybe even some friendships. So we've got five different repair areas at the cafe today. We've got a electrical appliances repair space and that is overwhelmingly the most popular area. So people bring in toasters and lamps and all kinds of random bits and pieces. We've got a clothing repair space and we've got a team of seamstresses, and a seamster, if that's the right word, who are mending clothes. We've got a guy who is repairing wood and pieces of furniture. And we've got general repairs and we've also got two bike mechanics. I was speaking to the daughter of one of the volunteers who helped out with repairs. And he was an older guy and he said to her that he felt a real sense of belonging and a real sense of feeling useful and having purpose. And I thought that was an amazing outcome from the day to make someone feel good about having shared their skills with local people. This is a beautiful example of a community initiative that brings people together and enhances connection, enhances a sense of community and neighborhood. And, you know, we fix a lot of stuff, but more important than that, I think, is the building of connection and community. [01:01:32] Speaker 9: It's really important to remember that when you dispose of something, you can't throw it away. When you throw something, it goes somewhere. You might not know where that is, it may be out of your sight, maybe out of your mind, but there is no such place as a way. [01:01:51] Speaker 24: In 2007, we were really starting to think about our impact that we were having, just our regular day to day actions. And one of the things we focused on was how much rubbish we were producing. I mean, we could have focused on anything, but rubbish was so visual and just every week rubbish bags filling up. So we somehow decided to challenge ourselves. We can't even remember whose idea it was now, but we did this crazy thing where we thought, right, we're going to try and make no rubbish for the entire year. We were genuinely not green people. We were putting out a bag of rubbish every week without fail. And we had literally never thought about it before. We sort of, it came to us one day and went, oh my gosh, this is terrible. [01:02:37] Speaker 25: In terms of, the challenge was to try and live for one year with less than a city council rubbish bag. And most of it was made up of, yeah, items that were out of our control. So the radiator hose on the car burst, and so we had a radiator hose. And we tried to carry on doing things that you'd normally do, so we were renovating our home back then. And we had all the lead paint from scraping the weatherboards. So in practical terms, that's what we had left over at the end of it, yeah. I think when we look at the average rubbish bin, you know, or what people are putting out, at least 50% of it's generally organics. And so you take the biggest things out first, right, so deal with organics is the no brainer. If you do that, you're 50% ahead of the average citizen. And then there's another sort of 30% of recyclable material, generally, these days in a rubbish bin. So that's the next thing. So you deal with the organics, then you recycle everything you can, and you're getting up there by that stage. You've made massive gains. People can feel overwhelmed and feel that what they're doing doesn't make a difference. But most of the waste we create, or we're kind of complicit in, is waste we've never seen. So we'll buy something, and there'll be a bit of packaging around it that we see. But in making that item, that's when the bulk of the waste is created. So if you're putting out a rubbish bag, it actually represents 70 rubbish bags of waste that you've never seen that's gone into making that bag of waste. Consumers have it tough, right? A lot of money goes into marketing and sending them messages that you can buy out compostable packaging and, you know, you're saving the environment. And, of course, compostable packaging in the landfill's just as bad. [01:04:34] Speaker 26: It's the sort of thing that actually needs to be composted at very hot temperatures, so it really needs commercial composting to be done properly. One of the biggest problems in my business is that I have to go to vendors and say, I'm sorry, I know you've paid more and you've been promised that this is eco and compostable by the person that sold it to you. But they didn't actually go and do their product stewardship and find out whether the composting industry can take it in every place. [01:05:05] Speaker 25: I think we've actually got consumers that want to do the right thing. We've got businesses that are doing amazing stuff. We've got a government completely missing in action in terms of providing a framework to encourage those behaviours more and more. [01:05:19] Speaker 26: So when you do buy a container in the supermarket, you make sure it's a reusable container and then you wash it out and you take it into one of these stores and you get them to weigh it and then you fill it up with whatever you want and they take the weight off it and you've just stopped that plastic packaging. [01:05:34] Speaker 24: If people are combining composting and learning how to recycle, then they're just putting a bit of extra thought into how they're shopping, particularly considering that packaging. It's that choice when you're at the supermarket or at Bunnings or whatever, thinking about the item. Essentially if it's plastic or got other composite materials in it, what can you do with that at the end of life? Not much. It's going to be rubbish, it's going to be around for thousands of years. Every time we spend a dollar, it's a vote. We have so much power, so much more power than what we realise. So it's like, keep on that knife edge, like yes, see that it's a big, that yes, there's big issues, but also yes, we can make a difference. [01:06:23] Speaker 3: Like there's a part of me, you know, when I go to recycle my bottles, you know, or compost my waste. It's like, well what good does it do? You know, I'm just subtracting one plastic bottle from the enormous trash heap that gets shipped to India and is making new mountains in India and China, you know, of waste. Like, what does it matter? One bottle different. You can say, well, if everybody did it, then it would make a difference. So you have to do your part. But part of, part of you will say, well, I'm not everybody. And if everybody does it, then it doesn't matter if I do it. So we have to have another reason. For me, it comes down to relationship and ritual. I like to save my compost and use composting toilets, for example, not because I've done some calculation that this is going to save the world, but because it's a different kind of relationship with the beings around me. [01:07:28] Speaker 27: Composting toilets, like composting your own ship, processing your own toilet waste, is a real basic fundamental thing that we should all practice. It's a simple way of demonstrating self-responsibility. [01:07:52] Speaker 19: So with a flush toilet, basically, you take really nice, clean drinking water and our ship and mix the two together. Both, you know, both wonderful resources. When you mix them together, you create a toxic problem. So with a compost toilet system, you're able to capture that amazing resource and take care of it and treat it in a way that removes any pathogens or problems and create a wonderful resource. [01:08:26] Speaker 27: Okay, so welcome to our toilet. For a start, it's composting toilet bucket batch system. We've got cover material, which we use old sawdust from the mill. It's already got bacteria and a bit of fungus in it. So you go make your deposit, put a bit of cover material on, leave it. And then when we've got a certain amount of buckets, we go to the compost and add straw and garden waste and kitchen waste. And this is one I did maybe a week ago. And we'll put the compost thermometer in here and see what we're looking at. We're still looking at 50 degrees. It's going up. It got up to 65 degrees the other day. I recorded it at that. [01:09:08] Speaker 19: You know, there are pathogens you have to consider. There's roundworm eggs and all these different kinds of worm eggs that can exist in your manure. If you do a hot compost, that's the safest way because you can nuke all those things within hours. [01:09:27] Speaker 27: And over here is what you get. I've got it in a bag, but you don't need to. That there is about a year old. It's got lots of worms in it. We put all our garden waste and all our kitchen waste in here. But the worms are a good sign. If you've got worms, it means it's not too acidic and yum, good stuff. And that goes straight on the garden and the plants love it. We love the plants. [01:10:02] Speaker 19: When it's finished composting, it doesn't look like or smell like anything like poo. It's just beautiful black compost. We've monitored it closely. We've watched the temperature. We know it's all the pathogens have been nuked. We feel confident in our process. So we feel safe to use it in our garden. Anyone can do this. It's just really a matter of being engaged and wanting to do it and getting the knowledge. It's a knowledge-based system. It's not technological or anything really advanced. We've seen people do it in cities, you know, with a wee backyard, small backyard. Yeah, and I've seen people do it in really rural settings. It's just a matter of being engaged. [01:10:48] Speaker 27: Yeah, it's for everyone. Everyone. Everyone who wants to take more responsibility for themselves and not pass it off. Everyone who values their poo. I value my poo. I value your poo too, so you're welcome to leave a deposit before you go. It's sort of expected actually. No pressure. [01:11:27] Speaker 28: I see that in order to be part of the solution, we really need to use our everyday choices to change our behavior. And it's a cultural shift that needs to happen in order for us to at least sustain ourselves, which isn't even enough, of course, because what are we sustaining? And so that's something I've really been putting a lot of time into recently is designing my work so that it's actually regenerative. Yeah, we're currently picking about two and a half tons up each week from local businesses and instead of that all going into a hole in the ground, it gets returned back to the soil by way of windrow aerobic content. So we currently have around 45 businesses on the Y-Waste collection and they have a number of bins or buckets, mostly wheelie bins and some have up to five wheelie bins at their business. And every week Y-Waste comes and picks that up and we take it to, we weigh it, we record all the data and things like that, we take it to a composting facility. And so, yeah, we're in partnership with them so that we can return that waste back to the soil. Recently, one of my clients rang me up and they were super stoked because they were able to cancel this big, like, skip bin for their rubbish, you know, and now they just use a 240 litre wheelie bin, which is much, much smaller. And that's as a result of all of their compostable waste going back to the soil. [01:13:18] Speaker 27: Oh, what's that? Oh, tasty muffin! [01:13:26] Speaker 28: I'm really passionate about composting as a solution of minimising our waste and our impact here on this one planet that we have. Food scraps and biodegradable waste takes up over a third of what we send to landfill. When biodegradable matter biodegrades anaerobically, it produces a lot of methane, which is 23 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. And not only do you get that gas going into the atmosphere, but you also get a liquid version of it leaching into our soils, into our water table. So what we're trying to achieve here is build a really hot compost around this drum and also build all this irrigation into it. So that when that aerobic hot compost heats up, we should be able to pump water through the system out and over to these bathtubs over here and have free biologically heated hot water. The reason why I'm so enthusiastic about compost is that it's fertility in its purest form. This is how nature builds soil and that enables us to grow more food. And if people are conscious of composting, they're probably going to become more conscious about what they're eating. And if they're opening less packets, that's good for everyone. That's good for the planet. That's good for our people. If we can get people to focus on eating better, then we're actually able to produce a lot less landfill waste and a lot more biodegradable waste, which in them can be turned into more fertility to produce more food. So the healthier we eat, the better our waste is and much easier to manage and return to the land. People talk about thinking global, acting local. I suppose I'm really sitting in that truth presently. I'd rather think global and act global, but we've got to start somewhere, you know. And so, yeah, that's the change that I'm wanting to see in the world, so I'm being it best I can. [01:15:56] Speaker ?: Transcription by CastingWords Transcription by CastingWords [01:16:37] Speaker 6: I see a lot of people who are very sensitive to the devastation, the damage or just civilisation and it paralyses them and that's sad because we need those people, all of those people. You know there's lots of things that could depress you out in the world but if you take each negative act as almost like an opportunity or provocation to do your thing which is the opposite of that, you know, give more life then it's fun, then it's a winnable game, that's how I see it. [01:17:18] Speaker 16: It would be awesome to see our country before human contact. You know, the thousands and thousands, millions of birds, huge, huge kauri trees, just unimaginable. I think we all have done a misjustice to look at life at Papatua-luku. My ancestors were always exactly the best conservationists either but we now have a chance to revive and recover those landscapes before it's too late. [01:17:52] Speaker 14: Over a three-year period we planted 85,000 trees. The majority of those are New Zealand native trees which are now flourishing and really transforming the landscape. I just sort of would love to see what this place looked like a thousand years ago which is such a, you know, brief period in ecological time and in that time we've sort of stripped most of the native vegetation and done a whole lot of damage and we've gone about as far as we can down that road and so now it's time for us to try and find the balance and restore those ecosystems but find a place for humans living harmoniously within it. [01:18:35] Speaker 11: You don't realise this but this used to be a pastoral desert. [01:18:39] Speaker 10: It was just grass. [01:18:40] Speaker 11: Yeah, and this is what people can do. You can create heaven on earth. [01:18:50] Speaker 17: Start growing food. Food is central to the way we live, our health and our whole ecosystem and environment. Even if you're in an apartment, you can, you know, window sills, pots, whatever, you can start and that's the first step. Once you engage with growing and experiencing nature then things start to happen. [01:19:13] Speaker 9: I get asked this a lot, you know, what can somebody do if they're not a farmer or they're not on the land? What can they do to change it? Well, they can do a lot. The best thing that anybody can do is to vote with their wallets. While in some cases it may be more expensive, do what you can. You know, if you see people in your area that are producing food that is ecologically healthy, they're doing it in a way that is looking after the environment, then that adds up. You know, the more people that do that, the less expensive it will become as that becomes normalised. [01:19:50] Speaker 7: You know, from an individual's point of view, the biggest change by far that we can achieve by changing our own lifestyle is to reduce the amount of meat we eat. That will have a much bigger effect than what we do transport-wise or almost anything else. [01:20:10] Speaker 18: There's a lovely poem that talks about we don't have to be good. We don't have to walk 100 miles on our knees repenting in the desert. We just have to do what the soft animal of our body loves. And I really like that. I really like that. For me, this turns out to be what I love. And I have a suspicion that this is actually the blueprint. And there's something when people get to it, everybody would want to live this way, I suspect. But it might be a really long journey for some folks to get to that knowing. [01:20:46] Speaker 8: Last year, I made a submission to a council long-term plan that I thought climate change was by far the most urgent and important issue that councils should be concerned about. And they said, and what would that look like? I got a reaction. So I ruminated on that for a while. And I took it back to a group that I was part of called Project Wararepa. And they said, yes, let's do this. You should have heard the buzz at that first meeting. It was fantastic. And that feeds me. That encourages me. That I'm doing something useful. It's my time to give back to the community that's been so good to me. Where I've raised my kids. And had such a good life. [01:21:50] Speaker 5: So my vision for the future, I have to be really clear, it doesn't have anything to do with things working the way they do now, but with renewable energy. That's actually not a possibility. Working on renewable energy and being quite different from what we do now, evolving into something else is the vision I see. Now, how well that's all working, how high a quality of life that is, how fair it is, how equitable it is, how stable the governments are, how much war has come between now and then, completely depends on what we do right now. [01:22:28] Speaker 3: I think that the place that we're going is a place that we cannot see from where we are. It'll only emerge or become visible as we move toward it. But so I'm not going to say, okay, you know, here's the blueprint for the future system. I've thought it all out, you know, and now I'm going to tell you what it is. But I do catch glimpses sometimes, you know. One thing that comes to me is that in the future, we'll feel really at home in the world. We will be intimately familiar with the landscape around us. We will be in rich communities. The best experiences you've had in your life, the most authentic, the most vibrant, those don't have to be exceptions. Trust what feels loving, trust what feels good. Trust what feels aligned with who you really are. If you live by that, and spread that vibe, and other people start living by that, then the whole planet is going to change. [01:23:37] Speaker ?: The best experiences you've had in your life, and the best experiences you've had in your life. 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