“On the first two days, we taught the students, the basics of filmmaking like editing, handling camera, shooting, so on. The students made the films all by themselves. They conceptualised, shot and edited the five-minute documentaries which focus primarily on the climate change in the city,” said trainer for the programme Matthew Branch, doctoral candidate, Department of Geography, PSU.

The students, divided into four groups of three, made four documentaries featuring various environment-related aspects pertaining to Pune city. In addition to filmmaking, the students also interacted with 12 students from Pennsylvania and shared their views on climate change and global warming in India and US. “We helped our students calculate the CO2 emission and compare them with recordings of US students. We recorded four tonnes of carbon emissions in average Indian households over a period of one month which was much lesser than 20 tonnes per household per month in US,” said Rasika Ajotikar, assistant for the programme.

The students went on to analyse the reasons behind lesser carbon footprints in India and explained the same to US students via blogging. “Carbon emissions in US are higher because of automobiles, air conditioners and so on. We told them a few solution like efficient utilisation of fuel, avoid plastic pollution, vehicle sharing etc,” said Disha Varma, student.

The girls now plan to take up environmental sciences and environmental filmmaking as their careers. “We realised that youngsters know a lot about global warming but are not forthcoming in putting this knowledge to use. We plan to spread awareness through blogs and documentaries,” said Kalyani Pimple, another student.