Climate Change and the Humble Housewife

Two years ago, all you could hear on the radio was Malcolm Turnbull warbling about an Emissions Trading Scheme. ‘P**s off, Malcolm’ I’d say. ‘That’s far too complicated for me to think about now. I’ve got this lunchbox to pack and then I have to deal with that egg-bound hen.’ And I’d tune him out.

One Sunday morning, we were engaged in a bout of housework at Apple Island Lodge. Radio National was burbling in the background. A man was talking about the earth being full. I drew to a halt beside the radio with my ear cocked, dustpan and brush in hand. ‘Who is this bloke?’ I wondered. ‘He’s talking about the bigger picture, and it’s quite easy to follow. Also, he’s very clever, because he’s got me to listen.’

Not many things stop me in my tracks when I’m doing the housework. I’d rather get it done and be off outside to tidy up my log stacks.

I made sure I listened to the end of the program, Background Briefing to find out who he was. Paul Gilding, they said, former head of Greenpeace, consultant to some of the world's largest corporations, regular on the international speaking circuit. He was speaking at Sydney University's Ideas Forum. You can download the program from Radio National.

At the time I was a member of Mensa. Now before you call me a tall poppy and cut me down, it doesn’t mean anything grand; it just means I enjoy Sudoku puzzles. I did a little writing for their magazine. So I emailed the editor and suggested he commission an article from Gilding. After all, surely climate change was a topic Mensans should be giving their immense brains to?

He wrote back: ‘Why don’t you interview him by email and write it up yourself?’

Fantastic! I thought. I’ve got an excuse to get in touch with this brilliant man. I made myself comfy at the computer and tapped out a message. ‘Happen to be a member of Mensa, would you like to be profiled in our mag?’ I was thinking myself a bit special.

‘I’d love to help you with this,’ he wrote back. ‘But I’d much rather do it by phone as I’ve more time to talk in the car than at the computer.’

‘Faaaaaark, nooooo!!’ I spluttered at the screen. 'I don’t want to actually talk to you! Then I’d have to pretend to know what I’m talking about!’

But it was too late.

I immersed myself in his work for three weeks. It was an immense journey. The world is in trouble. Gilding has been engaged in this debate for near-on forty years and he doesn’t hold back. Mostly, what emerged for me was that this wasn’t what I had in mind for my children.

We talked, he was generous with his time and put up with the way my questions dotted about. I wrote a profile of which he was kind enough to approve.

In April this year he released his long awaited book: The Great Disruption: why the climate crisis will bring an end to shopping and the birth of a new world, published worldwide by Bloomsbury Press. You can see the publisher’s blurb and some reviews on Paul's website.

The book is the subject of an opinion piece by no less auspicious a commentator than Tom Friedman, Pulitzer prize winning author and journalist of the New York Times. You can see his article here.

You can also read my updated profile here – just in case you prefer the housewife’s view.

It’s an important book and Gilding is a unique Australian. In any other country, he’d be a household name, as is Jonathon Porritt, former head of Friends of the Earth, in the UK. It's not coincidence that they’re both in the faculty of Cambridge University’s prestigious Business Sustainability program.

At the time of writing, Paul is just back from a publicity tour of Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, culminating in the Sydney Writers’ Festival. You can buy the book from online and of course at all good bookshops. If you're in Tasmania, try Fullers or Petrarch's in Launceston, and Fullers or the Hobart Bookshop in Hobart.

Leave your thoughts below! I’m sure they’ll be more edifying than the only member of Mensa who left a comment after my original article was published in their magazine. His response to climate change was to drink more beer.