Mumbai: Thousands of children attended the Science Express Climate Action Special (SECAS) II, a mobile science exhibition organised by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, to raise awareness about the threat of climate change and how the people public can cope with as well as adapt to it.
The SECAS II, which is a train with 13 coaches, reached the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and was thrown open to the public remotely by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. The train will be here till July 22. The initiative has been undertaken by the DST in cooperation with several other government departments as well as private entities acting as knowledge partners.
Central Railways General Manager D K Sharma, speaking at the press conference before the exhibition, said, “Everyone is invited to attend the exhibition and become part of the solution. No platform ticket is required to visit the SECAS II.”
Launched in October 2007, the SECAs has made eight tours of the country, travelling around 1,56,000 km and exhibiting at 507 locations. It has had 12 entries in the Limca Book of Records. The SECAS II was flagged off in February this year, with 53 people on board.
The exhibition covers a wide range of subjects related to climate change and mitigation measures to be taken internationally and individually in order to adapt to the increasing effect of global warming on the climate, biodiversity of the planet, water resources, forests and human health.
The exhibition features boards bearing information about the contributing factors towards global warming. For example, one of the boards says that travelling by a motorcycle results in emission of 456 grams of CO2 per 10 km but only 100 grams per passenger by bus. Other features include school students chanting slogans like “Less foot print, more hand print,” and a laboratory named The Joy of Science, aimed at making learning fun, manned by teachers.
“We indulge school kids in activities to bring the understanding of interdependency and to showcase how the chaos caused by the human activity leads to disastrous consequences,” explained Rubul Borah, Manager of the SECAS program.
Mr. Sharma also discussed alternative energy sources for powering trains and their feasibility.
“Using solar panels for feeding engines is not feasible. However, solar energy can be fed to grids, which can then be used to provide energy to trains,” he said.
