Being ill, being green
(Nimue)
Being ill makes it considerably harder to live sustainably. This can take many different forms. For us, it has included a bunch of things Keith needed that could only be sent to landfill after use. There’s more packaging to deal with, more that is consumed because more is needed. Travel has increased – regular hospital appointments have resulted in a lot of driving. We don’t have the public transport infrastructure to get people to and from hospitals comfortably or efficiently. When you’re ill you really don’t want the extra stress of dealing with unreliable buses, long waits, and longer days trying to get about.
Food waste has gone up. It’s harder when you are ill to make good choices about what you might be able to eat, and how much of it. Normally we’re close to zero food waste as a household, but in recent weeks that’s just not been possible. Illness can also impact on what kinds of food you’re able to eat and this can make it harder to go for more sustainable choices.
Being ill takes time and energy. This can make it unfeasible to do things in slower and more environmentally friendly ways. Walking and cycling for transport aren’t feasible if you are ill. Time and energy saving shortcuts become more tempting, but they all use more resources.
You might find you need more heating, that you have more laundry, or that you need to buy new clothes. Illness can cause changes in body shape. Weight loss is common around illness. Around cancer treatment you are encouraged to gain weight ahead of treatment because it improves outcomes. Some meds cause weight gain.
All of this costs money. You may not have the resources for it, and not being able to work will impact dramatically on some people. That in turn means cutting budgets where you can and not being able to afford those more sustainable but more expensive options.
There are some things I really want people to take away from this. The first one is that not everyone has a lot of choices about how they live. You can’t always tell who is ill and they might not let you know. Tackling these kinds of issues as an individual in a system that doesn’t take care of ill people very well and doesn’t make greener choices easy, is tough. It will be beyond some people.
It’s really important not to shame people for not living up to your standards. It’s easy not to think about this stuff if you haven’t dealt with it. Suggesting that no one needs to buy new clothes, or that everyone can eat vegan are cases in point here – both things I’ve seen done. Sustainability without compassion becomes a kind of eco-fascism. If the revolution doesn’t have room for ill, impoverished and otherwise vulnerable people, it isn’t going to work.
