On May 23rd 2007, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar held at Crown Towers by a company called Renewtek. This company had recently achieved accreditation from the Australian Greenhouse office and they wanted to show off their green credentials of which they should be rightfully proud. They invited Dr Tim Flannery to speak to us about the threat of climate change. Dr Flannery was given the award of Australian of the Year 2007, and the author of “The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change”.

I was so excited to be going along, as was my green friend Jennifer! So excited in fact that I arrived an hour early at the venue and had a nice light breakfast and waited for everyone else to arrive. Three cups of herbal tea and a visit to the toilet later, most people started to arrive. So did Dr Flannery, and I had the good fortune to talk to him before his presentation. I told him of my journey so far and what I planned to achieve in the next six months. I could see that he was impressed, and we also talked a little about how he lived off of the grid and was self sufficient in water resources. He even gave me a suggestion on how to solve the energy problems I was having with my pool pump. He suggested to convert to a DC pump and use a solar panel with battery backup. A pretty good effort, as this guy walked the walk as well. How cool was that!

His talk was informative and he had some interesting concepts. For example the concept of “The Great Aerial Ocean”, which is how he describes our atmosphere. And when you think about it, it is quite true. The atmosphere supports all life on the planet, as does the water based ocean for marine life. And the shame of it all is that we are polluting both at an alarming rate!

I have posted the video of his speech below so that you can experience it as well. It goes for about 39 minutes.