Former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair said here on Saturday that we need to evolve new development models that could be tested over several years to help us understand our planet better.
“We need to plant more trees and conserve water and power,” he said. He was responding to questions from students at the FACT Township School here.
The interaction with Dr. Nair was arranged as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the school.
He also delivered a lecture on the theme ‘Save the planet'.
The interactive session was attended by hundreds of students. It was an impressive one with the questions from students ranging from how humans could exploit water on the moon to the causes of global warming.
Questions on the use of satellite technology to reach education to the remotest corners of the country were equally impressive and drew lucid answers from Dr. Nair, who described himself as a hardcore space technologist. He said that the launch of Edusat had helped reach education to some of the poorest districts in India. In his lecture, he said Earth was our precious possession and that we needed to make a long-term plan to ensure its sustainability.
He also drew the attention of the students to the fact that scientists differed in their view of the phenomenon of global warming and the threat to life on earth.
He called for the development models that could be tested over several years to help us understand our planet better. We needed to plant more trees and conserve water and power. An agricultural model that used plants that suited a particular geographical area and self-sufficiency in food production in a particular area would help conserve the planet better. For example, he said, Kerala imported the bulk of its rice requirements from other States.
Transporting these consignments alone consumed thousands of litres of fuel. Chairman and Managing Director of FACT A. Ashokan was among those who addressed the students.
