Journalism of Courage
Students at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) sold cakes baked in solar cookers in an initiative to send a message to Paris, where world leaders have converged for talks on climate change.
The initiative is called ‘PAU for Planet: Climate Conscious Campus’ and it took the students a week to prepare 20 cakes in solar cookers. The cakes were sold at Rs 30 per slice and the money thus collected would be used to install solar lights in the campus, students said.
Students said the message behind the initiative was to convince people to replace one day of week in their kitchens with solar energy instead of LPG cyliners. Wearing the T-shirts with the message ‘I Love Solar’, the idea behind the initiative was to convince the people to replace one day of week in their kitchens with solar energy instead of using LPG cylinders.
Speaking to Indian Express, Gulneet Chahal, personality training instructor at PAU under whose guidance the initiative was taken, said, “Students prepared the cakes using solar cookers. Generally, it takes around two hours to prepare a cake if there is ample sunshine but in case of mild rays, it can take four hours. Students kept on rotating the direction of cookers by four degrees as sun changes its direction and then it is cooked in uniform way.”
“Each solar light costs Rs 20,000 and we have got sponsors who have agreed to contribute for it. We spent on our own to prepare the cakes and all money from sponsors and sale of cakes will go for solar lighting,” said Chahal.
Garima, a student who was part of the team said, “We also undertook a survey of 1,000 students in 10 colleges of Ludhiana a month back. The result showed that over 30% of students were not even aware of the climate change issue. The figures were poor indicators because the survey was done in reputed and elite colleges of Ludhiana including Government College for Girls, SCD Government College, Aurobindo College of Commerce and Management etc including PAU. Students even used internet on their phones to answer basic questions like meaning of climate change, its causes, effects etc.”
Vice chancellor PAU Dr B S Dhillon also visited the stall and contributed Rs 1,000 for the cause.
“All eyes are on global leaders who have gathered at Paris for the biggest summit on climate change. They are looking for answers and solutions but the biggest solution lies within us. We need small changes in our lifestyle to make them environment friendly. We borrowed four solar cookers from The School of Energy Studies, PAU and they taught us how to use solar cookers. We can cook four cakes at one time in a cooker,” said a student.
