Even as nations prepare for the meeting in Copenhagen next month on the thorny issue of climate change, Gujarat University (GU) is training 15 gifted people to tackle threats arising from changes in the environment.
They are all students of the two-year MSc course, ‘Climate Change and Impacts Management’, that was started by the university two months back, in association with the Centre for Environment Education (CEE).
The course — the first of its kind in Asia — caught the attention of the students who could have been a success in any other field. They say they opted for course because they are convinced that global warming and the resultant changes in climate pose a genuine threat to life on earth.
Tejal Prajapati, a graduate in physics who is now a 35-year-old mother of two, decided to become a student again and joined the course. Then there is Pankti Patel who gave up fashion designing to study climate change. Similarly, Karan Shah and Darpan Vaishnav from Rajkot have given up lucrative careers to become ‘climate warriors’.
The list of faculty for the course is equally impressive. Besides scientists from ISRO, Ahmedabad, and the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), there are Kamaljeet Ray from the Indian Meteorological Department, Kartikeya Sarabhai, director of CEE, and a host of other environment experts.
“Issues cannot always be dealt with at the policy level if there is no one to implement an idea in the field,” Sarabhai said, while talking about the GU course. “A policy on climate change must be sustainable to be effective. Once a policy is ready, the next step is development of skills for its implementation.”
Gujarat University vice-chancellor, Dr Parimal Trivedi, said the course was launched to meet the growing need of specialists to tackle problems arising out of climate change.
“Also, on December 6, we are organising an international conference in association with Canada on climate change.” The Copenhagen meet on climate changes is also starting on December 6.
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