AGENDA

 Snacks and Mingling

 A Bengali Animation Film on Climate Change, Tomorrow

 Dr. Soumitra Das on Climate Change and HCI (mission, strategy, activities, etc.)

 Lunch

 Ms. Lata Bhatia on Zero Waste Living

 Mr. Dwijadas Ghosal on Land Degradation: 3:15 PM – 4:00 pm

 Formation of Governing Body / Executive Committee

 2020 Calendar : 4:30 PM - 5:15 PM

 Website Launch : 5:15 PM – 5:30 PM

MINUTES

 A general body meeting was held n Sundargram, a quaint village in West Bengal, about 35 kilometers from Kolkata, on January 12. The meeting started at 11 AM. Fourteen people attended the meeting from varied backgrounds - engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and social/community activists. They came from both private companies as well as government agencies, and NGO. Soumitra Das explained the purpose of the meeting as to understand
(1) understand causes/effects of climate change,
(2) have a common understanding of HCI’s mission and direction,
(3) form a governing body / executive committee

 A Bengali animation film on climate change titled “Tomorrow” was shown. The film portrayed lucidly the causes of climate change, and its devastating effects on Bangladesh and ended it with a positive note that humans, who created the climate crisis, can also solve it and save the world. A general discussion about climate change ensued after the film. This set the stage for the next discussion.

 Soumitra Das presented
(1) causes and effects of climate change,
(2) 3 pillars of climate change solutions,
(3) the reasons for HCI and its mission.

KEY POINTS INCLUDE:

 Reasons for Climate Change: Humans have been emitting CO2 in the atmosphere for the last 200 years. Since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for over 1000 years, its cumulative effects increased the concentration level drastically. Today, the C02 concentration level s 415 ppm, 40% more than the concentration level before the pre-industrial time period. This excess CO2 is trapping more heat, making global temperature to rise. The last time C02 reached this level was 3 million years ago and the temperature was 2°–3°C higher, and the sea level was 50 - 80 feet higher.

 Effects: The effects of climate change are: frequent destructive hurricanes, melting of glaciers/arctic, rising sea levels, frequent coastal flooding, destruction of marine ecosystems, droughts, and heatwaves, etc. 150 million people would be underwater due to sea-level rise by 2050. Asia would be worst affected - large parts of Shanghai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Dhaka, Chittagong, Jakarta, and Hanoi could be wiped out

 Solutions: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Restoration are the three pillars of climate change solutions. Mitigation focusses on the reduction of carbon emissions. It is the mainstream effort to combat climate change. Adaptation is localized efforts to cope with its effects of climate change - it does not combat the root cause of climate change. Restoration focusses on the reduction of CO2 from the atmosphere to the pre-industrial level of 300 ppm. HCI believes that while mitigation and adaptation are necessary, they are not sufficient - restoration is needed to completely alleviate the perils of climate change. Mission: HCI’s mission is to restore climate, i.e., remove the excess carbon dioxide and make the climate safe and healthy for future generations.

 Activities: The HCI will focus on to : (A) Create awareness of global warming and climate change, (B) Promote policies and projects that would reduce excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in India, and (C) Create partnerships and alliances with organizations of similar vision and strengthen the global movement to fight for climate restoration. He proposed that HCI organizes a climate change conference with 26 schools in Barrackpore, a suburb in Kolkata, on the Earth Day, April 22, 2020.

 Soumitra Das ended the presentation saying that HCI is small today but its vision is not. When the future of humanity is at stake, we should focus only on climate change and not work on the edge. He mentioned about the partnership with Foundation for Climate Restoration (F4CR), an organization based in the US. He emphasized the importance of working closely with other similar global organizations to make a difference. He also mentioned about the possibility of representing HCI on the climate restoration conference with F4CR with at the UN in September 2020.

 Lata Bhatia spoke on Zero Waste Living. Key points include” Garbage and wastes are causing havoc in Kolkata - they are also adding CO2 to the atmosphere. She talked about composting food wastes at home and using it for gardening or gifting it friends who can use it for gardening. Say NO to single-use plastics Reuse existing plastic bags at home

 Dwijadas Ghosal talked about the cause and effects of land degradation in India. The key points include the following. Land degradation should be an immediate priority in India because, if it is not addressed, people will die out of hunger in the coming years. About 32% of India’s land area or 105 million hectares is undergoing land degradation. The primary reason for land degradation is de-forestation. Because trees are cut, the fertile, nutritious topsoil is washed away in rainfall water. This is a great loss to Indian farmers who often depend on the natural fertility of the soil to grow their crops. Already more than 3 lacs farmers have committed suicide since 1995. Because no media is interested in that, we are kept in the darkness in a systematic way. The solution to this problem is to create agroforestry and address plastic pollution - which, according to him, should be the top priority for India. The additional benefit of agroforestry is that it also sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere.

GENERAL MEMBERS FORMED THE GOVERNING BODY / EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE WITH THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS

 Soumitra Das - President

 Chandan Bhattacharya - Vice President

 Dwijadas Ghosal - General Secretary

 Sudhin Nandi - Treasurer

 Proma Das - Officer/Media and Communications

 Ashoke Chatterjee - Officer/Membership

 Somdatta Basu - Officer/Events

There was a discussion the Executive Committee should called Governing Body. Some members said that Governing Body should be appropriate per the society registration act. Sudhin Nandi will enquire about the The proposed bi-laws suggested no fees for general members while the members of the executive committee / governing body said that there should not two membership fees for general and executive members. They suggested 2-3 tier membership structures to raise the corpus. Sudhin will look into this. The hosting of the conference with school children on Earth Day was briefly discussed - there was no disagreement. This needs further discussion with the EC members. The meeting ended at 5 PM.