Climate change is at the centre of a host of debates and global protests, and high time it finds a significant place in politics and policymaking, too. In the backdrop of the recent Lok Sabha polls, a new challenge looks at how votes can be converted to trees.
Come June 3, a new challenge will see Kerala MPs being called on to plant trees in their respective constituencies, in a mission to improve green cover and counter effects of climate change. The #MarginTreeChallenge, initiated by sustainability programme—Project Sthithi in Thiruvananthapuram—challenges the 20 MPs from Kerala to plant as many trees as the margin of votes by which they won the recent polls.
Project Sthithi, initiated to create awareness about sustainable lifestyle practises and to implement them in the the district of Thiruvananthapuram, has been extended to the state level with this mission. On June 3, 20 trees will be planted at Concordia Lutheran Higher Secondary School, Kudappanakunnu. The challenge will be launched from Thiruvananthapuram, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's constituency. He will then have to plant 99,989 trees around his constituency.
“The MPs will then be able to say that we, the policy makers are making our constituency greener, globally. It has to be taken to that level,” said project head Bharath Govind. He is hopeful that the challenge can be taken to a national level with the inclusion of all MPs from the other states. The best thing about the challenge, Govind said, is that it is never ending. Elections are recurring and so will the challenge be.
Project Sthithi was launched by Thiruvananthapuram District Collector Dr K Vasuki on November 13 2018, under the C power 5 (Change Can Change Climatic Change) scheme. The third project under this scheme, Sthithi, since its commencement has been involved in various initiatives to protect the environment and eliminate use of plastics with the introduction of alternatives, under the leadership of Govind. It is working towards dramatic changes in manufacturing, education, livelihoods, electricity generation, sustainable farming, food system, health care and to introduce strict pollution control measures.
They believe that waste is not just to be managed, but reduced. One of their main aims is to “implement a green protocol across the state drawn by our key concern to reduce carbon footprint”. Green protocol will result in a significant reduction in waste if implemented effectively. The project has been striving to attain just that. It has been trying to instill in the minds of the youth a passion to save the environment.
