Participation - not copping out

‘Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race’ -Songwriter Pete Seeger 

There was a bit of a tussle over the potted mango tree, the first time they were given out.
Two gents, formerly blind, now benefitting from good vision after their cataract surgery, frowned at each other and engaged in a determined tug of war. There were enough trees to go round. But this was the last mango tree.
The situation was quickly resolved when eye hospital manager Azhar Khan stepped in to mediate.
Afterwards he said: ‘I think the lesson is that we should give them all mango trees.’

At the Drishti Eye Care Hospital, a small community eye hospital in the Aurangabad district of Bihar state, every post-operative surgical patient is presented with a tree to take back to their village to plant.
In addition, anyone bringing in a bag of plastic waste collected from their village, can get free surgery.
The modest purpose-built hospital is located in the midst of low-lying hills and verdant fields. And to preserve that precious environment they have a water purification system that ensures all the water the hospital uses is purified before being put back into the river system. Earthquakes being increasingly frequent occurrences in Bihar, the building is also earthquake-resistant.

Behind all these actions is Azhar Khan, surely the most Green hospital manager in Bihar. Perhaps it’s because he remembers a happy childhood playing in the beautiful forests around his home in neighbouring Jharkhand state.
In September 2017, in a bid to protect the environment Jharkhand joined around 17 Indian states to ban the use of plastic bags. In spite of this, people continued to use them.
Said Azhar; “It’s always about people really understanding the problem and being prepared to change their behaviour.’ (Ring any bells?)
So when Azhar started his own eye hospital he was determined to establish a working practice that took the lead on environmental actions, reduced waste and encouraged every patient who entered the premises to think of ways that they, too, could participate in combatting the climate emergency that is impacting their lives.

(Fourteen out of the 50 districts most vulnerable to current climate risks in India are in Bihar, according to a latest study (2019-20) by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengalaru).

Two decades ago I don’t remember seeing much plastic waste at all in the villages of Bihar. Now it is recognized as a major problem.
This extract is from the Plastic Waste Management Resource Report for the Government of India a few years ago:
’More than 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste are generated across India every day. An increasing fraction of this plastic waste is found in rural areas, as the reach of retail corporations and commercial organizations grows…it is becoming increasingly clear that plastics are posing significant environmental and health challenges in rural communities.
Plastics are disturbing local ecological balances and show up in water and land as micro-plastics. In their macro-form, they act as physical barriers, degrade soil quality, and get ingested by livestock and also other fauna, lead to blockages in drains and streams.’

Government advisory groups are very good at collecting data and warning of problems.
But if we want action to solve this crisis, we all need to participate.
This week’s gathering of world leaders, celebrities and British royalty at the COP26 climate conference has been billed as a last-ditch attempt to save our planet.
Very, very sadly the conference has ended up with the majority of frontline communities worst affected by climate change not being able to attend.
According to the Cop26 Coalition -which represent indigenous movements, vulnerable communities, trade unionists and youth activists around the world – up to two-thirds of those it was helping to travel to the UK gave up, overwhelmed by a combination of visa and accreditation problems, lack of access to Covid vaccines, changing travel rules and expensive accommodation. In other words, not many Azhar Khans present.

Exclusion from the corridors of power, however, does not prevent us participating in combatting climate change in every way that we can. And every single day.
If some of the poorest people in the world – the patients and families who attend Azhar’s eye hospital – are doing their bit and also spreading the word in their wider communities – surely we in the affluent West can do more?

This is what I saw this morning as I walked through my own area of London
-       Every other person holding a non-recyclable coffee cup. This in spite of a high-profile campaign by a celebrity chef alerting people in the UK to the fact that, whilst clever marketing gave the impression that these could be recycled, the majority ended up in landfill – in fact 2.5 billion every year. There was also a 2017 report from the UK’s House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee which suggested that these coffee cups produce an annual carbon footprint equivalent to what 33,000 cars produce in a year.
(Is it really so difficult to always put your own re-usable coffee container in your bag?)
-       Shops dispensing blue plastic bags to customers who had ‘forgotten’ to bring their re-usable shopping bags. (This is an area with a Green Party representative who has worked tirelessly to try to change habits of both shopkeepers and the public).
-       Huge piles of black bags outside homes (it is rubbish collection day today), some of which must contain some of the 70% of food waste in the UK that households are responsible for. According to the organization called WRAP which monitors these things, we did well during the first UK lockdown in cutting down on the food that we throw away. Now we are back up to pre-pandemic levels!

My mother, born in India, used to berate us for not eating up everything on our plates. There are children who are starving and you waste good food she chided. And, found guilty, we would get annoyed and respond with smart-aleck comments about the inability of getting our leftover food to them.
The point is that she never shied away from pointing out personal responsibility. And she was right. There is no copping out when you realise this.

 Lucy Mathen