GrowthBusters Australia Tour – Report 1
I thought I’d interrupt the series of posts honoring the Limits to Growth 40th anniversary today, as tonight I leave Australia and head home after two weeks of GrowthBusters screenings, great audience response, intelligent conversations and warm friendship. I regret I did not get to see every Australian who has supported and cheered on the GrowthBusters project, but on the plus side I made several new friends.
Had lunch yesterday with successful Australian businessman, Dick Smith, a growthbuster if ever there was one. Dick is fond of saying,
“We can’t have perpetual growth in the use of energy and resources.”
He thinks that’s just common sense. We talked at lunch about how most people agree, but for some reason they can’t make the next logical step, to thinking about whether this would be a good time to say, “Okay, that’s enough.” As we were saying goodbye, I ambushed Dick with my pocket video camera and he offered this greeting:
You may see Dick at the Sydney screening of GrowthBusters next Tuesday night. Screenings remain for Sydney, Perth and Darwin.
William Bourke of the Stable Population Party was a great travel partner on part of the journey. I enjoyed getting to know William and of course congratulate Australia for having political leadership with the vision to discuss the most critical issues of our time. The party is responsible for my trip to Australia, where they have organized screenings of GrowthBusters in every capital city.
Meghan Halverson and her family were awesome hosts on the Sunshine Coast. I’ll write more in the near future about Mehgan and her work to save the koala from extinction. Meghan gave me a very close and thorough introduction to the koala, a species whose habitat is disappearing in the crushing onslaught of development along Australia’s eastern coast.
Nina Centaine threw a wonderful beach party for me and other growthbusters. Nina is a delightful conservationist and talented songstress. One of her songs graces the score of GrowthBusters, and two of her songs are on the GrowthBusters Earth Day Fundraiser Soundtrack.
I had a wonderful visit near the Sydney Opera House with filmmaker Dennis Grosvenor and his wife and producer Di. We have a lot in common and I can’t wait to see their film, State of Siege.
I also want to thank James Vaughan and his awesome family for welcoming me into their home in Sydney. I was growing pretty weary toward the end of the trip, and they provided a very supportive and restful family environment that recharged me. James is about to be a film school grad; he provided important research and technical support on the GrowthBusters film.
There are more to mention, but I’ll get to them in a future post.
Dave Gardner
Filmmaker
Dave Gardner is the director of the new documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which uncovers the cultural forces that keep us pursuing growth in the face of overwhelming evidence we’ve outgrown the planet.
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