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 by Paul Coleman
An ancient saying states that ‘Every great journey begins with a single step’. On September 22nd 2007 my wife Konomi and I took that first step when we began the ‘Greening the Earth, Greening the Olympics Walk’ from Hong Kong to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. China won the Olympics on the premise that the games would be ‘green’ and we had been invited to help them achieve this.
(Reprinted from Positive News Hong Kong)
The Olympics is a monumental event for any nation and draws the attention of the world. China is undergoing massive change and surely what happens in China will effect everybody. China is a powerhouse just coming online and for the sake of the humanity and the planet that we all need to exist, China needs to develop in a way that is sustainable and right now that is not happening. The 2008 Olympic Games can ignite the flame of hope at a time where hope is sorely needed. If China goes green the world goes green. And the Olympics and the attention they bring provide a spectacular opportunity for China to advance in a positive manner. Through our walk we hope to spread the environmental message throughout the land and to encourage the citizens to participate in the global efforts to make the world a better place.
Now we are 1400 kilometers further down the road and in the mountains of North Fujian Province. We have walked through cities large and small, through towns, villages, and communes. We have hiked through rice paddies, along beaches, down highways, through every type of environmental imaginable and unimaginable. And we have been horrified by what we have seen. When people ask me about the walk and experience so far, I reply, “We have just witnessed a 1400-kilometer environmental disaster’.
From the moment I stepped across the Hong Kong border into Shenzhen I began coughing because of the polluted air and rarely have I stopped. I clear my throat regularly; not something I do elsewhere. Every day we see small fires where people casually burn garbage that largely contains plastic shopping bags of which 3,000,0000,000 are littered throughout China every year. Those that are not burned are turned into the earth of farms or just dumped into the waterways that are so filthy that they are backer than oil and often bubble and boil like a witch’s cauldron.
We hardly ever eat fish. We try not to eat any meat, but here in China if you order cabbage, it may come cooked with pork. We would never eat duck, as we see the horrendously filthy pools in which they are kept, but this leaves only vegetables which we love, and we don't like to think about all the pesticides and poisonous water that we see being sprayed on them. What can we do? We have to eat. Fortunately Chinese food tastes good and this helps us to overcome our concerns of being slowly poisoned. We’ve seen rivers containing thousands of dead fish, killed by intensive irrigation of crops sprayed by chemicals; the water levels have been so reduced that the chemicals returned to the water are not diluted enough for life to survive. And we’ve stood broken hearted in the midst of beautiful mountain scenery to find black streams flowing red with the congealed blood of hundreds of piglets dumped because they died of some disease, and lying next to the medical waste that was probably injected into them. These rivers ran into a vast reservoir feeding several cities, countless communes, and millions of people and I have wondered more than once, “Can we continue to survive upon this planet?”
Now at this stage you may be wondering, what’s positive about all of this? Well, we still have hope. Its nice to think when you see things as tragic as dead baby pigs that something good will come out of the experience. At that time we were walking with three students from a local university. They had been with us for several days and were even more shocked than us by what they saw. That night when their teacher treated us to a fabulous meal they refused meat for the first time in their lives and did so for the rest of the time they were with us. Before they left their teacher asked for the videos and photographs that we’d taken. I gave them everything and later thought “Gee I sure hope she doesn’t see the dead pigs.”
Next morning she said. “I loved the videos. That one about the pigs needs to be got onto the Internet.” She said, “Chinese people will be shocked to see this and have taken action before when they’ve seen such things.”
Our walk changed the lives of the students who joined us and they have informed all of their friends of what they have seen. Now more students want to join. This support from Chinese citizens is growing and through these wonderful people we see hope. Immediately following the pigs we entered the city of Nanping in a state of shock, but I told everyone to let it go, something good will happen. It did. The next morning the students were delivering gifts to an orphanage and it just so happened a reporter was there covering another story. She heard of our walk and appeared at our hotel at 2pm. She asked, “Would you like to plant a tree in our city?” “When.” I asked. “At 3pm!”
That’s how fast things can happen here. An hour later we stood next to the cities famous landmark pedestrian bridge about to plant a very large flowering tea tree. There were crowds, reporters and the local TV Station. They loved our young Chinese friends and interviewed them extensively. One became a great spokesman for the walk. Another student, when asked by Konomi what he had got out of his journey replied. “Before I walked I used to buy something and just throw the garbage onto the street. I never thought about it. I promise I will never do that again.”
And this is the great hope. If one person can destroy the environment, one person can save it. Our message is reaching these ‘one persons’ the individuals. In China there are 1.4 billion individuals. This is the nation's strength. When I walked upon the Great Wall I realized the essence of China is its people and any people who can build such a ‘Great Wall’ can do anything if mobilized. This is why it is so important to reach the common everyday people. They are the strength; they will be the change.
We are very grateful for the support we have received from the Central Government who have promoted our journey and provided us with trees to plant and extensive media coverage. We are grateful to the media, for everyday in China there are stories on the environment. We know that both the media and the Central Government realise there is a problem and this fact can lead to the solution. As we have walked we have never encountered any form of restriction or attempt to block us from seeing or recording or reporting on anything. We have been delicate, but truthful and now we have more and more Chinese people joining us we are spreading the message further as they deliver it in their own way. Our support grows; more and more trees are planted, more media appears and more people raise their voice.
Even in the darkest night the flame of hope always burns bright. China, with the support of its people can lead the way to sustainability. If China can produce the environmental and alternative technologies that the world needs, then the nation and its people can grow wealthy, while protecting the environment at the same time. From experience we know that when China and Chinese people want to do something, IT GETS DONE.
We can make the world a better place. We can and we will.
http://www.earthwalker.com/
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November 14
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