ENVIRONMENT

How You Can Cool the Planet Too With These 3 Easy Actions

Plants, making freshwater, and a little paint

If we can’t involve LIFE in everything we do, what’s the point of having a life?

Complaining seems to be our human wiring. We complain about the weather in my country a lot. It’s always too hot. Too rainy. Too cold. Or something in between that my sisters and brothers don’t like.

On this platform, it’s the same. I read a lot about problems. About perceived causes causing the problem. But solution stories are scarcer. And I want to be part of the solutions. Don’t you?

Yesterday, I went for radiation and the nurse said to me:

“I saw you wore a hat. It’s hot huh?”

And I smiled. My hat is to prevent my bald head from burning. But hot? Hot? What’s hot?

I pointed to the sarong I had wrapped around me and said laughingly:

“Hot? Here in Holland? No way. Hot is 37 degrees C and 99% moisture in Indonesia. It was great to work in the heat. And feel the warmth of the locals.”

She gazed at me in confusion.

And I smiled even wider. What’s a word? What’s the meaning?

Those are the little joys of my days. These days.

Climate Change

Around the world, the heat can be felt though. Wildfires are burning. Cities are melting the hearts of old people and children. And they die. They are the vulnerable ones.

And my heart melts too.

I post a lot of solutions on Linkedin and I’m very surprised that people make everything so difficult. You can do something about hot cities today.

Why don’t we?

Why do we keep complaining and pointing at governments who should save us? From what? It’s our life, isn’t it? It’s our life. And our future.

A few mind-changes have changed everything for me in my learning times.

• We are more powerful than we think. We have Qi, Chi, also called Ki. The fire inside. The circulating life force inside our bodies. I use Ki to get healthy again and get through what I have to face these days. You can use your own Ki to do what you do in life
• Harvesting is the new cleaning up. Do you have a problem with knotweed? Look up its medical properties on the internet. Harvest. And use it. Abundance is good when we recognize what we can do with it
• Textures, shapes, and colors can be used to solve almost anything. Change the shape and colors in your life. And feel the difference

Thinking with Feeling

The new paradigm of the Syntropocene will combine thinking with feeling. What do I mean by feeling? Feeling is using our 5 senses deeply and combined. It is all about observing. It is all about listening.

It’s about silence. And knowing that silence is not a lack of sound but the full spectrum. After all, there are a lot of sounds around we cannot easily hear with our human ears.

Did you know our soils are not silent at all? They are a cacophony of sound.

Of course, feeling is also emotion. Emotions are our compass. If we can’t feel deeply, what is our life worth? My life would be a booooooring chain of small dull moments without my emotions coloring the time.

Thinking with feeling is our next paradigm. The Syntropocene. The Anthropocene, the man-made era, will merge into it. Not shift to it. Just be incorporated into it.

We are moving into the era of And & And. We are a human species after all and we too have a right to be on this planet with many. We just have to make sure we increase the carrying capacity of the earth. So other species will be able to breathe as well.

All economies, societies, personal lives, technologies, production methods, providing for basic needs, etc. etc. are being changed now with three words in mind.

Life. Health. Freedom.

Not everywhere it’s happening though. Maybe not in your country (yet). But that’ll change too with the new generation. They will be wise leaders. I have faith in them.

And don’t get me wrong. Freedom is full autonomy combined with full responsibility for our own actions. It’s our life. We can change whatever…

The Syntropocene has one other characteristic.

We will be an adaptive species.

Because adaptive species are thriving species.

In Maine, Americans have their very own Born Global. We create a cluster economy in Maine now with three words: Ecology. Education. Employment.

The 3 Easy Tips

Cooling our planet is a very important thing to do. It’s getting hot underneath our feet. The big projects are well underway now.

In Egypt, the Sinai desert is being regreened by the holistic engineers of The Weathermakers. The Sinai was once a green area. And it has been calculated that if we regreen this desertified area now, the hurricanes in that whole ocean area will be calming down.

It’s all happening for real, don’t you worry.

But what is it that YOU can do yourself?

1- Plants on the outside of your house. Most of you live in a stone house, don’t you? Well, you can plant ivy or another climber against the outside wall. Biodiversity will be soaring. Evaporation will be happening to cool your outdoor area. And you will have a cooler climate inside as well.

Combine several climbing species if you want some diversity throughout the year. Take care though. Ivy will get its water out of your cement and the walls will crumble if you don’t make a wire mesh structure first. Make the ivy always climb against the wire mesh

2- Make freshwater actively. It’s easy to make freshwater with a process called condensation. All you need is a temperature difference. In the Australian desert, they grow tomatoes bigscale with condensation. Sundrop Farms does it. But you can do it too in your house.

Experiment with it. Cold seawater or wastewater through a pipe. Sun on it. And voila… healthy freshwater. And don’t think cold as in refrigerated. That uses energy. Think cold as in cooled under the ground. Or in the sea.

We have boxes in the ground instead of refrigerators in the ecovillages where I mostly live. Or clay does it too. Clay structures are cold.

Freshwater made with condensation is used to make waterfalls from buildings in China. They lead the water through moss and plant walls. And green roofs. Evaporation cools the city. And condensation makes healthy drinking water

The Chinese are also rebuilding their cities to be sponge cities now. The Chinese keep floodwater (which is freshwater after all) longer on land in the groundwater. Wetlands are inside and around the city. It solves their water scarcity problems.

3- Colors can cool. We all know that black is a color that absorbs heat. And white is a color that reflects heat. So, why do we still have black roofs?

Paint your house white. Paint your roof tiles white. If you are hot in your clothes, wear white. Or other light colors. If you think white is too boring, use yellow. Or light blue. Or pink.

The planet will love you for it.

And you can be a happy chappy again… knowing that everything will be alright if we all do our bit. Starting with… ourselves…

Because all these little puzzle pieces of change together will make a big difference if we add them up.

Big Projects

Dear Americans, don’t think this is only happening on the other side of the world. In Maine, you have your very own Born Global. We create a cluster economy in Maine with three words:

Ecology. Education. Employment.

And if you are inspired by the big projects I mention, what stops you from drawing your government’s attention to them? Holistic engineers are popping up around the globe now. They can do the work. We just need people all around the globe to be inspired by these solutions.

What area needs to be regreened in America or Australia to calm down the hurricanes?

Harvesting Is the New Cleaning Up

Okay, one other little example then. Harvesting is the new cleaning up. Sargassum is a seaweed that’s often blocking harbors. It grows quickly on our planet because we have made our waters so nutrient rich.

Instead of just cleaning up though, we harvest it. And make goodies of it. Here is a picture of Ocean Agraria in Indonesia. Actively creating employment with a ‘waste’ product.

The sargassum is used to make textiles. It has great fibers. And it’s used to make non-toxic colors.

Fashion will never be the same again because with technology we also make it possible to create color with structure. Colors like butterfly wings. Without pigments. Thin film interference is the name of the technology.

Next time you catch yourself complaining, look around you and see if you can harvest something. It’s such a waste to throw things away that have already been created…

Let me tag a few people I love on Medium. I’m so glad you are my friends here! And Tree Langdon, this one is especially for you. My wordsmith inspirator. I remember you telling me that you want concrete DIY stories. I didn’t forget…

Martine Trista Selma Elisabeth Amy Michele Rebecca Rebecca Zelam Dew Tree Agnes Agnes Jenine Adelia Kaia Yael Maria CR Annelise Nicole Caroline Melissa Charlotte Gurpreet Lanu Aurora Annick Neha Noma Sherry Paul Bill Kathryn Joe George Jessica B. A. Tony Rasheed Henery Chowa FILZA 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 Simona Tamela Jayne Infiniti Russ Salam Ravyne Fred Liam The Maverick Thewriteyard Stuart Maria Sumera Ntathu Arthur Britni Dipti Eliot Daniella Ryan Do The Green Helen Jo Ann Kevin Nicole Kim Priya J.J. Roz Jyssica Radha Upen Suzanne Tre René Terry Jill Eli Shin Karen ◦•●✿ Christina Dr. Christine Keno Dennett

Thank you, Gaia, for giving me Wild Writing. © Désirée Driesenaar, 2022