The Climate Agenda installed an artificial lung in Lucknow to help everyone visualizew the impact of air pollution on human health. The installation was done on 10th January 2019. The experiment was initially conceptualized by Jhataka.org in Bangalore, and then replicated by Help Delhi Breathe in Delhi last year. The same experiment with the same instruments was performed by the Climate Agenda under 100% UP campaign in Lucknow.
The inauguration of the event was done by the Hon’ble Mayor of Lucknow Mrs. Sanyukta Bhaa. Municipal Commissioner Dr. Indramani Tripathy along with renowned Respiratory Medicine expert and Head of the Department, KGMU, Dr. Surya Kant and Mrs. Ekta Shekhar, Director of The Climate Agenda. The inaugural ceremony was well attended by several other senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Lucknow including two Additional Commissioners. The event also saw a good presence of other social activists, dignitaries and volunteers of Lucknow.
We had expected that the instrument would remain installed there for more than 10 days. This presumption was made as per the buzz which the media creates around Delhi pollution levels. The team thought that these lungs would take more days to turn black than what it took in Delhi. Hon’ble Mayor and other dignitaries of the launching event can well be heard in videos of the day, saying the same thing. But, shockingly, the lungs took only 24 hours in Lucknow to turn black. So, with all other outcomes, this event would also be remembered as an eye opener in terms of pollution levels in other north Indian cities. For the last 100 days, Lucknow didn’t observe even a single clean air day which itself clarifies why these lungs turned black in mere 24 hours.
on the seventh day, on 16th January 2019.
In these seven days, the lungs gave us an opportunity to explore the public, media and political mobilization tactics. The artificial lungs started to trend on social media from the very first hour and the mainstream print and electronic media made them their breaking news in 5 languages, i.e. Hindi, English, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam. Political Parties based in Uttar Pradesh and the national ones including the ruling party responded too well to the campaign.
Outcome of the political mobilization effort was the biggest prize for the team. A consensus was observed among all political pares, big or small, to address the air pollution issue. An adequate space is promised from all of them to the environmental issues in their political manifesto for 2019 parliamentary elections.
When the Lungs went black, the team started reaching out to political parties. The team invited them to the Lungs site so that they may see the deterioration in the lungs.