Words by Smiley Team
Communities around the world are coming together to tackle the climate crisis. Their local, grassroots efforts are essential while awaiting positive change on a wider scale.
From natural solutions to ancient indigenous techniques, there is a wealth of climate solutions to pick from when building community resilience.
Here are some of the exciting possibilities for protecting civilisation against increasingly severe and frequent extreme weather events.
As sea levels rise and floods become a regular occurrence in some areas of the world and food shortages become an increasing threat, underwater greenhouses offer a solution. Off the coast of Italy, Nemo’s Garden is an example of how aquatic agriculture can offer a controlled environment to grow food more effectively and access water through salt water purification.
An ancient indigenous idea, natural walkways and bridges made from the roots and creepers of trees offer multiple benefits for urban residents. It’s a great means for people to move about cities, crossing roads and infrastructure in the shade during heat waves. Meanwhile, the plants’ leaves purify the air, helping to tackle air pollution.
If the waters are rising, why not rise with them? Regardless of the measures governments take to prevent glaciers from melting and sea levels from rising, we are likely to face worrying sea level increases. To handle this, flood-threatened areas such as low-lying islands could benefit from floating houses and cities, such as OCEANIX Busan, a city on water being built off the coast of South Korea.
From ancient Inka irrigating systems to Indian paddy fields, there are plenty of sustainable ways to treat water for agriculture. When it comes to drinking water, there are also many purifying techniques including evaporation as well as passing water through organing materials such as sand, soil, plants and charcoal.
Technology to reduce the risk of wildfires has taken a leap forward in recent decades. There are better means of monitoring wildfires as well as ways to compute the pathway a blaze is likely to take.
