Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.
This immortal quote made over a century ago by none other than Swami Vivekananda is more relevant now than before, especially for the youths who are the driving force of tomorrow.
The biggest challenge the youths are facing today is climate change. By putting this message of Swamiji into practice during these challenging times, they can become the change-makers of tomorrow and make a difference.
Ahead of National Youth Day January 12, Sunday POST caught up with some of such young minds who, with their innovations, have geared up to limit climate change and reduce carbon footprints.
Climate Change Indicator
A four-member team from Young Tinker Academy from Bhubaneswar has made a satellite to use as a climate change indicator for calculating atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses like CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (Methane). They launched it last December. The team members – Rishikesh Amit Nayak, Sujal Mohanty, Venkat Raman Patnaik and Sai Akshara Vemuri – are now gearing up to launch the satellite in the Stratosphere (10-30km) with better sets of sensors and better telecommunication tools.
Team leader Rishikesh, on this unique project, says, “On December 18, 2021 the CubeSAT was tested in a range of two kilometers to check the telecommunication and sensor data. We are all set to launch it in the stratosphere (10-30km) with better sets of sensors and better telecommunication tools. Online hands-on learning academy Young Tinker Academy made our dream come true by guiding us to come up with the satellite.”
Giving more information about the function of the climate change indicator, he adds, “At present, global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain manufactured greenhouse gases have all risen significantly over the last few hundred years. This indicator can measure the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It focuses on the main greenhouse gases produced by human activities.”
On the mechanism of the satellite, he explained: “The telemetry contained call sign, packet number, latitude, altitude, velocity, heading, GPS timing, temperature data, gas sensors, barometer that would be processed by a microcontroller and LORA (from long range) will be transmitted to the base station throughout its flight, both ascending while being lifted up by the balloon and descending after coming under the influence of gravity due to explosion of the helium filled balloon at a height of 10,000 metres above the ground level. Further, the data will be recorded from the sensors and images captured by the camera would be stored in an in-built storage provision in the satellite. The signals received at the base station would help track and landing of the payload (satellite) for retrieving the same.
The payload with a parachute, attached to the helium filled balloon will be released into the atmosphere by February. The team is further gearing up to launch the CubeSAT in the Orbit with a better telecommunication service by the end of 2022.”
The project took about a month to complete, says Venkat Raman, the other team member who rose to limelight for clearing the Microsoft Technology Associate Examination in Java, Javascript, Python, HTML, CSS and database administration fundamentals at the age of eight.
Beach Cleaning Tool
A group of students of Berhampur ITI College developed a tool to help clean the sea beaches and stop plastic pollution which is a major contributor to carbon footprint. The tool was launched January 4 by the Ganjam district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange. He highly appreciated the efforts of the students for coming up with an innovative idea to reduce carbon footprints.
Instructor at Berhampur ITI Arun Kumar Patro says, “It was the brainchild of our principal. Five students joined me and teacher Bichitrananda Pariadhi to develop the project. Rs 4,000 was spent to make the tool. The cleaner tool is lightweight and easy to handle and cleans up to 1,000 sq ft of the beach in an hour. Apart from promoting tourism, the tool is helpful to end plastic pollution resulting in reducing carbon footprints. The tool has two models. One model separates dead conch shells from sand while it helps separating plastic bottles. Meanwhile, our institute has been asked to come up with 20 more such sand cleaning devices.”
Saroj Kumar Behera, a member of the team, says, “The sand cleaning tool is a kind of raking or sifting device over the beach to remove litter and other foreign matter. It is a manually self-pulled vehicle on wheels or pulled by a quad-bike or tractor. I became a part of the project because I am very much concerned about growing plastic pollution. Needless to say that plastics have become essential components of packaging because they are durable, light-weight, and cheap. But though they offer numerous benefits, plastics originate as fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases from cradle to grave. Despite knowing the adverse effects of plastic, people keep on using plastic thereby polluting the beach and aquatic ecosystem. Thus, I got into the project when I heard about it.”
Another team member Jagan Behera says, “Plastic pollution and climate change are linked in many ways. According to researchers, plastic production and disposal resulted in 850 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 and may be responsible for up to 2.8 billion tons by 2050. Our device would certainly help combat both climate change and plastic pollution issues. I always wanted to do something for Mother Earth. It’s an honour for me to be part of the team and do my bit for the society.”
Fight against plastic pollution
Meet 22-years old Rahul Maharana who is on a mission to clean beaches to end plastic pollution. “Exhaust from vehicles, airplanes, and factories put carbon dioxide into our air and it causes the earth to trap more heat. The ocean absorbs about one-quarter of the CO2 that humans create when we burn fossil fuels. In this way, beaches are persistent sources of greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climatic warming. Concerned over the impact of carbon footprints, I decided to clean beaches to help reduce carbon emissions”, says Rahul who works as a security guard in Bhubaneswar and has undertaken beach cleaning initiatives on more than 70 occasions.
Rahul was so serious about his goal that he quit his job for two months to completely dedicate his time for the noble cause.
How did it all happen? To this query, Rahul says, “I used to attend awareness programmes on beach cleaning drives organised at Nimapara College when I was pursuing Plus II there. These programmes literally made me learn about the menace of plastic pollution. Also, I was inspired by Soumya Ranjan Biswal of our locality who is into protecting wildlife and Olive Ridley turtles. From him, I learnt about the threat plastic poses to the endangered Olive Ridley turtles during their nesting season. Thus, I decided to work on reducing plastic pollution on the beaches and looking after Olive Ridley turtles during their nesting. I will make sure to clean the Rushikulya beach.”
Earlier Rahul used to bury plastics collected from the beach. He brings back as many as 15 bags of plastic on each visit to the beach. He collected at least 500 bags of plastics so far. “Earlier I used to bury those waste. Soumya bhai introduced me to local civic administration at Konark for disposal of the same. However, I have preserved a few bottles that I believed to have washed ashore on the Astranga beach from Japan or Indonesia.”
For the last four years Rahul has been cleaning beaches all alone. “I was perturbed by the sight of plastics littered on Astarang beach and decided to launch my beach cleaning mission in 2018. Though Soumya bhai was into the activity, I was not able to join him as I remained busy in my studies. I started doing it in my free time. Beaches at Odisha have not been polluted so much compared to beaches at Maharashtra. It is a collective responsibility to protect our beaches before it is too late.
Rashmi Rekha Das,OP
