I unfortunately couldnt attend day 1 of COY yest as I was driving down from JHB but attended today. What an awesome gathering to be apart of! there is such a positive vibe and energy amongst all the people. A highlight for me was seeing the presentation by Will on the Tarsands Action ca,paign which took place in Washington DC and actually postponed the construction of a oil pipeline from Canada to the USA called the Keystone XL pipeline. I love hearing stories like his because it makes me feel like us humans still have a voice and the ability to sway the deciosn-makers. Being associated with the environmental management field I find myself becoming quite wary/cynical of how much impact us (the public) can influence decison-makers ~so I become ecstatic when i hear stories were the public opinion was considered.
Highlight number two was meeting a few of the Caravan people. To explain a bit~ the caravan cosisted of 6 trucks of people (think was like 100 people) who travelled from Nairobi to Durban, it took them 3 weeks and all the way raised awareness around climate change and got everyone they met along the way to sign a petition. Was so cool seeing this enormous group form all different countries uniting for the fight against climate change. The group is called We Have Faith Act Now. What an inspirational group of people!
Because I was volunteering I unfort missed the workshop on "how REDD++ has failed" but it truely was nice man-ing the food stand and handing out delicious vegan lunches to everyone. Thanks Steve (the vegan food guy) who supplied the food. Being a vegetarian I was delighted about the delish lunch. I wont get started about my strong feeling about vegetarianism but dont worry.. that blog will come :)
Tomorrow Nick and I are off to get our programme and offically register for COP17. Exciting!
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