In India, there are many ironing vendors (熨烫商贩) who press people's clothes for a living. Their main tool is an iron box powered by charcoal(木炭). India's Science and Technology Department found out that there are about 10 million ironing carts (手推车) in the country. Each of them uses more than 5 kilograms of charcoal each day, Reuters(NPR) reported.
After seeing her neighbourhood ironing vendors throw the used charcoal away on the street side, Vinisha Umashankar, a student from Tamil Nadu, India, told NPR that she started to think about the amount of charcoal burned every day and the harm it does to the environment. Burning charcoal gives out greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide(CO2), which leads to global warming.
Vinisha had the idea of ▲ . She spent six months working on a new wheeled cart. The cart has solar panels which take in sunlight to provide electricity. The rest energy can be stored for use on cloudy days, according to Time Magazine. Five hours of bright sunshine is enough to use the cart for six hours.
To complete the invention, Vinisha lost herself in reading college-level physics textbooks to find out how solar panels work. Then, she reported her idea to the National Innovation Foundation, run by the Indian government. Engineers there helped her build a model, NPR reported.
Now, her idea is getting worldwide attention. "I am not just a girl from India. I am a girl from the earth, " Vinisha said in her speech. "All of us should understand that environmental problems are real and can't be fixed at a later date, " Vinisha continued, "There is no immediate stop. There are no magic ways. "
