Camp Chennai
Different activities were organised as a part of the Vigil Camp in Chennai which included documentary film screenings, workshops by eminent presenters, Hot-seat and various other outdoor activities. The Human Chain on the 12th of December at Marina beach made us join hands with organizations such as Greenpeace, WWF, Pasumai Thaayagam, Adore nature, Reunite to redefine India, Chennai Social Service, etc.
Documentary Screening
The documentaries screened were handpicked in order to be well aligned with the theme of the day and the information needs of the participants. The documentaries screened included Earthling, Age of Stupid, Energy Efficiency, Future Conservation( British council), Poison on the Platter(Green Peace), Climate Change - An Untold Story(British Council), Iyarkaiyin Maranam (Pasumai Thaayagam) and Home.
Hot Seat
The Hot seat was the unique feature of the Base camp providing the bridge to connect our civil society to people from Copenhagen during CoP15. Lots of discussions on the happenings in CoP15 were shared and feedback was passed on further to the IYCN delegates in Copenhagen.
Reaching them
The program recorded the views of public on climate change, CoP and global warming. This brought to the fore how people of different communities interpret this issue. This was screened to the participants for their information on how people react to the issue and also readied them to train anyone on this contentious subject where people often have differing points of view.
Workshops
Workshop sessions reached the audience with so much force that they were held back in their seats asking for more of such sessions. The speakers for each day were eminent in their fields.
The speakers are listed below for reference,
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Siva Kumar - WWF on Bio-Diversity,
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Ms.Pamela – Documentary Film Maker from UK. ( Lifestyle),
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Dr. Anantha Rajan ( Energy and Transport ),
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Prof.Krishnan (Economy),
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Mr.Jagan Vengapalli ( Agriculture & GM Foods),
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Dr.Sultan Ismail (Waste Management).
Each day of the camp proved to be an informative day with such sessions.
Participation
Local
Participation from the civil society was limited to select NGOs who can take the message to the common public through all possible mediums. The local groups with good numbers showed up for the Human chain with about 300 - 450 people who joined hands with IYCN to show their interest in CoP15 and demanding from the government a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal.
Outstation
People from all about 25 districts of Tamil Nadu came to attend a weeklong camp proving their intention and courage to fight climate change. The exposure to people from across the remote parts of the state gave us a comprehensive overview of effects of climate change in every region, illustrating the different ways in which it has affected human life.